After talking with Jasmine for a while, Raymond realised that he was still wearing only a bathrobe to cover his body. He picked up his old clothes and took off his bathrobe to wear them.
Jasmine who was already mesmerised by his appearance blushed hard when she saw his perfectly sculpted abs and ripped muscles. He had a lean and well proportioned body, that made it hard for her to take her eyes off of him. Her eyes lit up with excitement when she imagined being in his embrace.
Seeing as he responded positively when she kissed him before, she took a daring step and hugged him from behind, making sure to press her boobs against his back.
"Master, why are you wearing those old clothes? They are dirty and worn out, so you should wear new ones." She stood on her toes and huskily whispered in his ears.
Raymond shivered feeling her breath and two impressive mounds pressed against him. He could already feel his member getting stiffer by the second in his underwear. It was the first time he was in an intimate situation with a girl, and the said girl was a breathtaking beauty– only fueled his desires.
"Ah! See, this underwear looks worn out too." She snaked her hands around his waist and cupped his semi hard cock. She had a mischievous glint in her eyes and started slowly rubbing her hands on the bump causing it to grow harder.
Raymond took a deep breath and shook his head to clear his thoughts. He grabbed her hands and turned around to face her. Although he felt a sense of loss when he removed her hands from his member, he didn't let it show on his face.
"What are you doing, Jasmine? Don't you think things are moving too fast between us?" He asked her face to face.
"NO, things are moving too slow. You don't know what I have been through these few years because you weren't there. You don't know how hard it was for me to keep my chastity. You don't know how scared I was every night, thinking someone would force himself on me because you weren't there." Raymond recoiled in shock at her outburst.
Jasmine had tears streaming down her cheeks and she finally collapsed under the stress that had been mounting on her for years. She was constantly worried that some lecher would take her against her will and her recent encounter with Allen only proved her worries right.
She couldn't let go of this chance to be with her master, yet she couldn't control her emotions when he showed hesitation to accept her advances– not to mention it was already embarrassing for her to make the first move.
Raymond could feel how hurt she was by his question and he hugged her closer. Jasmine cried against his chest for a long time until she finally calmed down.
He slowly moved her towards the bed and placed her head on his lap. He patted her head and gently stroked it. Jasmine felt truly safe and comforted for the first time in a while. This is all she ever wanted from her master, to be loved and cared for. She would do anything in return for his love, she was even willing to sacrifice her life to save him from Allen.
"Master, is it really too much to ask for when all you want is to be with someone you love?" She whispered in a barely audible voice, but Raymond heard it loud and clear.
He wanted to answer but he couldn't find the right words. This was the question he wanted to ask his grandfather who left him without giving any reasons.
"I- I don't know, Jasmine. But I promise to be with you forever." He said with enough determination to feel her relief. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't done anything noteworthy to gain her love, but he would cherish it nonetheless. In this world it was hard to find someone who loves you unconditionally and he felt lucky to have Jasmine with him for that.
Ever since he found out about his broken core, his mind was in turmoil. A broken core meant he wouldn't be able to cultivate, he would forever remain a martial minor, meaning he could only live for a few decades before he met his end.
Dying wasn't what truly scared him, but when he was faced against a long lifespan of cultivators, he would slowly fade into non-existence in their memories. He was scared he would be forgotten by the people that mattered to him, that his grandpa, father and Jasmine would forget about him after a few hundred years. It was bound to happen when you weren't around to remind them of your existence.
That was why when he found a chance to break the shackles that bound him to a mediocre life, he completely immersed himself in it, even going so far as to avoid contact with the outside world.
His grandfather was right, he really did have a one track mind whenever he found something interesting. He chuckled thinking about how he needed to be distracted by someone whenever he was lost in his own world. Thankfully this time Jasmine was the one to do it.
He heard a soft snoring sound and found her sleeping peacefully. He tucked her in the bed and looked around the room for his belongings.
"Hmmm, where did she keep my stuff?" The room was fairly large considering it was given to a maid. Usually a servant's room was shared by two or more people. But thanks to Thomas, Jasmine had this room all for herself. After searching for a while he found a dusty bronze trunk in the bottom shelf of the cupboard.
He took the trunk out of the shelf and opened it to find neatly folded clothes and a pouch made of silk. Checking the pouch– he found some gold coins, which he had saved up before he went to train. After removing some clothes he found his grandpa's book in the middle and took it out. He still could not understand anything written in it though.
But this time due to his heightened senses he could feel the book giving off an otherworldly vibe, he couldn't quite explain it but to him it felt like the book didn't belong in this world. He carefully examined the book and he found some strange symbols on the spine which looked like magical runes. If it wasn't for his sharp eyes, he would have missed it, that's how small the symbols were.
Jasmine woke up due to the clattering sounds made by the trunk and saw her master going through his trunk. She stepped out of the bed and went near him.
"Did you find the book master?" She sat beside him and rested her head on his shoulders.
"Yeah, I found it." He replied while examining the book.
"I am sorry for yelling at you." She said her face flushed. If she was a maid of someone else she would have been punished for yelling at her master.
"It's okay. I deserved that." He said tapping his head to her head.
Raymond was getting distracted by her fragrant smell causing him to remember the kisses they shared.
"What are you looking at, Master? Is there anything on the book spine?" She asked, feeling curious because of how he was staring at it intently.
"There are some runes on it I think. Can you see it?" He showed the book to Jasmine.
Jasmine squinted her eyes and scrutinised the book, she could vaguely see something on it.
"I don't know, it seems like there is something on it." She said tracing her fingers on the book spine.
"Master, if it is magical runes, then how about we try to infuse mana in it?" She asked the obvious question.
"Then go ahead and do it." Raymond chuckled.
She nodded and slowly infused her mana in it. Even after some time the book didn't stop and kept absorbing the mana from Jasmine. As a martial major, she only had so much mana, fearing that she would exhaust it, she quickly stopped the infusion.
As soon as she stopped, the spine of the book lit up and it lifted the book by itself and hovered in midair. The book was opened by invisible hands and pages started turning rapidly on its own. After turning pages for some time it stopped and the turned up page emitted a golden light. After that book fell to the ground as if nothing happened to it, but there was something written on the page that caught Raymond's attention.
'Spirit Convergence Technique'
There were some instructions written along with the name on how to connect one's mana nodes in order to cultivate this technique. The human body consisted of more than 2000 mana nodes and to cultivate a technique one needed to connect these nodes specifically mentioned in the technique.
At the end of the page, he found a special note written which quoted– according to this technique when two people connect on an emotional level and become intimate with each other. A special energy is formed between them which is called spirit. If a couple cultivated this technique then they could share this spirit according to their needs and speed up their core refinement.
"Eh? Isn't this similar to dual cultivation?" Raymond thought aloud. Jasmine too had the same doubt. Dual cultivation techniques were only mentioned in legends. Even if someone searched all the books in the empire, they couldn't find a single dual cultivation technique, yet now they had obtained it just like that.
"Hmm, it seems like it, but I am not too sure." Jasmine replied, rubbing her chin in thought.
"Listen, Jasmine. It doesn't matter what it is. Do not mention anything about this book to anyone. Alright?" He told her seriously. Seeing the book in action, he could guess that it wasn't anything ordinary. This book was at the least a special magical artefact, which made it different from other attack and defence type artefacts. This was similar or more special than Heaven's Door. That was for sure. So he quickly warned Jasmine not to reveal its existence.
Jasmine nodded briskly to show that she understood what he meant by those words. If it really was a dual cultivation technique, then that alone is worth a fortune of a lifetime.
Jasmine felt a light bulb switching on in her head and rubbed her hands excitedly.
"Master, why don't we test this technique? Uhm, you know, to see if it is really a dual cultivation technique." She said and her face reddened when Raymond smirked at her knowingly.
"You are too cute sometimes." He pinched her nose laughing.
"Hmph, what about other times?" She rebuked instantly.
Raymond had a ominous feeling, as if he was at a crossroad of life and death. If he took a wrong step he would regret it forever.
"Huh? haha, other times? Yo-you are just too beautiful for me to describe." He said while internally cursing his brain for coming up with such a cheesy line. But it seemed to have done the trick as he saw her face lighting up with a smile.
"Hehe, nice save master." She burst out laughing at his words.
Raymond's eyelids twitched seeing her laughing.
"You little minx, you like to laugh at me, don't you?" He pounced on her and started tickling her nonstop.
"Hahahaha, ple-please stop it, ma-master. I can't- hahahaha"
Jasmine rolled around on the floor due to his relentless tickling, she had tears forming in her eyes due to excessive laughing. Raymond pursued her and tickled without stopping, very soon they laid on the floor entwined in each other's arms. They locked eyes with each other, creating a spark of lust that ignited their desire for each other.
Raymond leaned closer to her and started the kiss, soon they found themselves entangled in a duel of tongues. They broke off the kiss after some time and a string of saliva formed between their mouths as a proof of their make out.
"Master…" Jasmine whispered with barely concealed lust.
"What?"
"Make me yours."