"Alright. What about that other technique?" Queen Hua asked.
"What? There was nothing more. I saved her exactly how I just described." Nick was confused.
"No, the technique you refuse to practice with her." She was angry earlier, but still listened and noted what YunYun was saying.
"Sigh, that's a long story and I'm not fully comfortable to talk to you about it." Nick shook his head.
"Aunt, that is nothing perverted, please …"
"Are you ashamed of me or something? Or you hold a grudge? That's very much unlike you." Queen Hua forcefully smiled.
"No. But I'm really afraid you will start beating me again for no reason." Nick plainly said.
It was true. He was hurting all over and this unpredictable woman with a superhuman strength sat at his table. He had to watch every word to keep his sorry life.
"I promise, I won't hit you."
"Not good enough. I want you to swear you will never ever perform any harmful actions against me except if I directly endanger you or your loved ones." Nick decided to be pragmatic. He already witnessed how effective the oaths of her and the king were, therefore this was the best way to guarantee his safety.
Queen got startled for a moment, but after thinking for a bit his request sounded reasonable, especially under the current circumstances, "Alright, I swear!"
Nick immediately started the explanation – it was the most effective way to get her out of his house as soon as possible.
"Back when I was captive in the Holy Order, for a period of time they thought I was a sort of a devil's incarnate. At some moment I had to make the grand elder busy to keep my hands free while organizing my escape. Thus I thought of some nonsense and presented it as an ancient secret technique. It was based on Qi exchange between a man and a woman during the act of intimacy."
All three of them blushed in an instant, but Nick pretended to not notice it and tried to get over with this story as soon as possible, "But for some reason it turned out to have a really strong effect. Let's not get into nuances for now, but let me tell you that those two old people were like born anew – within few days they fell deeply in love and it got really creepy. My theory is that this technique has a good effect, but maybe performing it in intimate way increases its effectiveness. While we hid in the dead emperor's bedroom, in order to lift Conny's spirits I voiced the idea that maybe in the future Steven could help her in cultivation and that way give everyone some more chances for survival – you know we were staring death in the eyes all the time ..."
Nick stopped there to have a sip of tea, but on everyone's faces were mixed feelings. Nick and YunYun were remembering those days, but queen tried to imagine the desperation in that situation and the incredible luck and perseverance which allowed them to escape in the end.
"When I carried YunYun out and we hid in the dark currents of the river, to keep her warm I started to infuse Qi in her. But she's not a regular girl, you know! With her playfulness she began to send it back and somehow we performed that technique, at least in a way. But the effect was amazing and bizarre – I doubt either of us can even explain. It was so strong that I was reluctant to try again, especially while we were on the run. But on the ship there was a lot of free time and Conny brought that subject up, so we just wanted to show how it works … just a simple example … but we fell into the same amazing state we experienced back in the river, except this time for six or seven hours. Steven and Conny practiced it later as well, but effect on them was not as strong, probably because their cultivation is weaker."
"It shouldn't work that way." Queen Hua shook her head, "You're not the first one to have this idea."
"Aunt, it really is amazing. And after that we were full of Qi, almost bloated!" YunYun tried to help out.
"Bloated?" Queen furrowed her brows, "Give me your hands and don't resist!"
She checked YunYun first and then Nick and with weird look glanced at them.
"You two are close to become Qi masters. Actually, you could even become Qi masters in few months if you don't intentionally postpone it."
One was fifteen and another thirteen. This was a big deal.
"Shouldn't we try to delay it as much as possible?" Nick asked. That was a common sense – it would be incredibly hard to increase the amount of Qi in his Dantian after he became a Qi master.
"That would normally be the case, but your Qi is really thick! Even if you became Qi master right now, you would be a high class one."
"I still want to delay it and I'm pretty sure YunYun is the same."
"That would be for the best. Alright. Show me how do you do this dual cultivation." Queen Hua commanded.
Nick sighed. He knew there was no escape.
Both youths sat in front of each other, blushing red and holding each other's hands.
It took a while for them to concentrate under queen's stare, but soon the familiar Qi ripple went out and the gravitational force spread as well, while they already were on their way to the heaven, or at least it was how they felt.
This time it was different though, because the one who was observing them was the sword prodigy of the Lethe kingdom. Her Qi sensitivity and manipulation skills were miles ahead of Clayton. She watched the young couple with excited eyes, but didn't dare to touch. She held her palms few millimeters from both bodies and closed her eyes to better concentrate on the Qi fluctuations.
Queen didn't care about the passage of time and kept analyzing the situation even while nothing changed for hours until the sunrise when Nick and YunYun trembled slightly and opened their eyes. After waking up YunYun wanted to jump in Nick's arms like she did back on the ship, but after noticing her aunt nearby, barely managed to resist the urge.
Both youths were blushing deeply, but the queen didn't care about their feelings. She grabbed YunYun's hand, checked her Qi pathways and then did the same with Nick. Both were more or less awake and didn't resist while still remembering that this was a test after all, even though it felt too invasive.
"It's the Qi resonance! Your Qi resonates with each other!" Queen was excited.
"What does it mean?" Both youths were confused.
"No one knows! Sometimes it happens between two people, but it's incredibly rare, in fact, I only read about it and haven't seen before. Hahaha! Your technique actually works only for you two and not for the others. The other people may experience 'something', but nothing like this!"
"But what exactly happened? Why do we feel like ... like …" Nick had no idea how to describe the state he was just in.
"While circulating your Qi, it somehow resonates and creates a natural gravitational field that attracts more Qi. As a result you feel bloated because of the huge amount of Qi that was absorbed in your bodies. And the increase of inflow of Qi creates the pleasant feelings you are experiencing. I bet it would be even more effective if you used similar Qi techniques!" Queen excitedly explained. Qi cultivation was the second love of her life with sword being the first.
"Aunt, I already practice Nick's cultivation techniques for over half a year." YunYun quietly said while blushing even more.
Queen got startled, but then sighed, "Don't tell that to your mother. In fact, don't tell her how Nick saved you and maybe don't tell her anything at all or she might just kill him. The women in our family are … a little different."
YunYun nodded, but Nick looked seriously at both of them and simply stated, "I'm not leaving this place ever again!"
"Hahaha!" Queen laughed.
"Aunt, but why Steven and Conny experiences warm and pleasant sensation when doing this? They didn't have this 'Qi resonance'." YunYun tried to change the subject.
"I think Qi circulation between two people is still beneficial, just not as effective as the regular cultivation. Maybe because they have strong feelings between the two of them it's also a bit more effective." Queen pondered, "What was the intimate concept that you made the two elders use?"
"Not telling!" Nick shook his head.
"YunYun, go watch the sunrise! Nick – speak! I'm tired and I want to go to bed." Queen commanded.
"The sunrise?" YunYun was shocked.
They remained in the amazing state for many hours once again without noticing the flow of time. YunYun wanted to stay, but in the end listened to her aunt and went outside. Nick turned out to be right, sunrise was extremely beautiful here. The anchored ships in Aurora bay added even more romance to the picture and, while the rays of the sun played in the waves, the nature behind her in the woods started to wake up and multitude of birds were chirping and singing at the same time. It was a cool winter morning, but she still felt warm from the abundance of Qi.
In the cottage Nick decided to draw the concept, even though he didn't remember the exact way on how he tricked the grand elder back then. It involved the mapping of Qi flow through pathways, but the embarrassing part of holding back the semen discharge and slapping buttocks he still had to say out loud. Queen's face was in the same deep red color as his, but they managed persist till he explained till the end.
Finally she grabbed the drawing and left. Before she exited, Nick still had one last question.
"Do you think it would be more effective for me and YunYun to become Qi masters while we practice like this? We increase the amount of Qi a lot, the only problem is that we can't really control anything around us."
Queen thought for a bit, "I would even advise for the two of you to become Qi masters that way. The thickness of your Qi is incredible."
"Can we increase it even more if we hold some beast cores in our hands or find a place with a thick natural Qi?"
"I'm not sure about the first, but I don't think it's a good idea – Qi from the beast cores is not the same as the natural Qi. But the second idea shouldn't be bad at all. YunYun might have a clue where to find such place." Then she yawned and disappeared.
Nick got up and went outside as well. YunYun was watching the sunrise and he joined her.
"Why did she insist on you explaining that embarrassing technique?" YunYun saw Nick still deeply blushed and asked.
"Sigh, I think she noticed the part of two elders falling in love and wants to make more effort in stealing the king's heart. Probably there is some stupid competition going on between the queens all the time." Nick shrugged, "This is why I keep saying that one wife is enough."
"But what about Zia?" YunYun asked while trying to figure out something from Nick's expression, but all she saw was confusion.
"What about her?"
"Don't you like her as well? And everyone talks how you two were so close for many years ..."
Nick looked at her for two minutes wrecking his brains until he finally understood her meaning.
"YunYun, something is wrong with the people you normally communicate with and their influence is not good at all. How can their minds be so twisted? Me and Zia are childhood friends. Childhood! We were playing while training even before we were ten! What does it have to do with the relationship between a man and a woman? And just because she is my friend, it doesn't mean we want to get married. Kate, Beata and Conny are also my friends, should I marry them as well? And Scarlet is also my friend, if you consider me so perverted, maybe I should marry her too!" Nick got all worked up. He remembered how his father had to deal with the mother's random jealousy outbursts and didn't want that experience for himself at all.
"So we …" YunYun didn't know how to continue. Nick was different and her temperament was usually very fiery and that fire had hard time burning down the walls build by his logic.
Nick was looking at her seriously. Only after the harsh beating and the following explanations he finally understood how YunYun felt about him. But she was a tad too young for his modern values even though she was incredibly beautiful, smart and, in fact, he liked her very much. The time they spent together and the dual Qi practice made them especially close.