Chapter 238 | Tempering the Core and the Morning After*

Chapter 238: 238 | Tempering the Core and the Morning After*

Inside the sealed Subterranean Earth-Fire Chamber, the violent spiritual tempest gradually settled into a warm, gentle breeze of pure essence that drifted across the Red-Jade Spirit Stone platform.

For the rest of the night, neither Lin Tian nor Instructor Qing separated.

Still joined together on the soft snow-beast fur rug, with Qing’s bare back resting against a pile of crimson silk cushions and her long legs wrapped loosely around Lin Tian’s waist, they circulated the Primordial Yin-Yang Imperial Sutra in slow, unhurried cycles to consolidate their newly formed Golden Cores.

Twice more before the subterranean magma tide shifted toward morning, the lingering heat of their breakthrough ignited into slow, passionate movement.

Without the frantic urgency of condensing a Core or the pain of her first time, Qing experienced the full, intoxicating depth of being a woman in the arms of the man she adored—her muffled cries and soft gasps echoing through the warm amber twilight until exhaustion finally pulled her into a deep, dreamless sleep against his chest.

When Qing’s long black eyelashes finally fluttered open again, the glowing magma river beneath the crystal floor had calmed to a soft morning amber.

Before she even opened her eyes fully, two distinct sensations registered in her mind.

The first was the indescribable lightness and power humming inside her lower abdomen.

Where a cold, burning knot of Lethal Fire-Poison had gnawed at her Dantian every single morning for the past five years, there now floated a warm, radiant Golden Core brimming with boundless Divine Valkyrie essence. A single breath circulated spiritual Qi through her meridians ten times faster than when she was at Peak Foundation!

The second sensation made her breath catch and a scorching blush rush straight from her neck to the tips of her ears.

She was lying completely naked on her side, her head pillowed on Lin Tian’s muscular arm, one of her smooth thighs draped high over his hip—and his large, warm hand was resting comfortably cupped over the soft curve of her bare breast, while the heavy, unmistakable proof of his morning vitality was pressed snugly against the warm crease of her lower belly.

Looking up through her lashes, Qing saw that Lin Tian was already awake, his golden eyes looking down at her with a lazy, affectionate amusement.

Realizing how shamelessly she had been clinging to him in her sleep—and remembering how loudly she had cried out his name while sitting in his lap the night before—the proud Chief Martial Arts Master felt her face burn as if she had leaned over an alchemy furnace.

Instinctively, she tried to shift her leg back and pull a corner of the crimson silk sheet over her bare shoulders.

"We’re both in the Core Formation Realm now..." Qing murmured, trying her hardest to recover a shred of her composed instructor’s tone, even though her voice came out soft and slightly husky from last night’s cries. "The sun must already be up outside. Elder Liu and Elder Bai are waiting outside..."

Before she could slide half an inch away, Lin Tian’s strong arm around her waist tightened, rolling her effortlessly onto her back on the soft fur rug and pinning her beneath his broad chest!

"Ah—!"

Qing’s hands came up against his bare pectorals as he settled comfortably between her parted thighs, the warm weight of his body pressing her back into the cushions.

"Yesterday morning, you were still my strict Chief Instructor from the Martial Arts Peak," Lin Tian said, a low, teasing smile curving his lips as he brushed a strand of messy black hair away from her rosy cheek. "Today, once we walk out of those stone doors, both of us will be Core Formation Elders of the Inner Sect. Are you already planning to put that cold face back on the moment we put our robes on, Elder Qing?"

Hearing him call her Elder Qing in that low, intimate voice while his bare skin pressed against every inch of hers, Qing’s heart skipped a beat.

There was no medical necessity this morning.

No poison left to purge, no tournament bracket to discuss, and no breakthrough crisis to resolve.

Yet as his warm hand slid slowly down her bare ribcage to caress the soft curve of her hip, and the familiar, intoxicating Irresistible Yang Scent filled her lungs, Qing realized with a helpless tremor in her chest that she didn’t want an excuse anymore.

For years she had lived like a piece of cold iron on the Martial Arts Peak. Now that she knew how warm it felt to melt in his hands, how could she ever go back to being cold to him?

Looking up into his golden eyes, the stubbornness in Qing’s gaze softened into a shy, alluring warmth that no disciple in the Crimson Nimbus Sect had ever seen on her face.

Slowly, her arms slid up from his chest to loop around the back of his neck.

"In front of the disciples on the Martial Arts Peak, and in front of Sect Master Hong’s spies... of course I have to keep a cold face," Qing whispered, her cheeks glowing a vivid rose as she tilted her chin up to brush her lips lightly against the corner of his jaw. "Otherwise, if the whole sect finds out that the newly promoted Elder Qing lost all the strength in her legs inside the Earth-Fire Chamber... how will I ever discipline the inner hall again?"

As she spoke, her long, smooth legs shifted up on their own to rest gently against the sides of his hips, her dark eyes shimmering with a playful, devoted surrender.

"But the stone doors aren’t open yet..." Qing murmured softly against his lips, her voice dropping to a bare whisper, "...and Elder Liu gave us until mid-morning."

[Ding! Target 5 (Instructor Qing) Obsession Level: 75% → 76% (Pure Affection & Playful Intimacy Beyond Cultivation Needs)]

Lin Tian let out a low laugh and captured her parted lips in a deep, hungry kiss.

Without any need for pills or formal stances, he slid smoothly back into her warm, welcoming depths, drawing a soft, contented sigh from her mouth as they spent another slow, tender half an hour wrapped in each other’s arms on the Red-Jade platform before finally rising to dress.

After washing the sweat from their skin with warm spring water stored in jade basins, Qing dressed once more in her crisp crimson martial coat and fastened her sword belt at her waist, while Lin Tian put on a clean dark robe.

Though Qing’s posture was once again straight, poised, and sharp as a drawn blade, the radiant glow in her clear skin and the way her fingers brushed lingered against Lin Tian’s sleeve before he reached for the door mechanism told a completely different story.

Before unsealing the inner doors, Lin Tian paused for three breaths at the center of the platform and turned his awareness inward toward his Dantian.

Hovering above his spiritual sea, his Nine-Cloud Supreme Dark-Gold Core spun with a deep, volcanic hum.

More than the tenfold increase in his spiritual power and combat reach, stepping into the Tier-4 Core Formation Realm had fundamentally transformed the internal flame flowing through his meridians.

He raised his right hand and flicked his fingertips.

Fwoosh!

A condensed, thumb-sized flame of pure, dark-gold Core Origin Fire bloomed effortlessly above his palm!

When he had been at Peak Foundation Establishment, no matter how high his Artifact Refining Talent or his comprehension of runes had been, the lack of true Core Origin Fire had limited his forging hands to Tier-3 Peak-Grade treasures.

Now, feeling the terrifying temperature and spiritual malleability of his Tier-4 Low-Grade Artifact Refiner flame dancing across his palm, Lin Tian’s golden eyes gleamed with quiet satisfaction.

With this Core flame, upgrading his Abyssal Suppression Pagoda beyond Tier-2 and eventually forging true Tier-4 Core Artifacts with the Sun-Marrow Crystal was no longer a distant goal—it was right at his fingertips.

Extinguishing the dark-gold flame with a close of his fist, Lin Tian activated the Abyssal Shadow Veil.

Instantly, the vast, nine-cloud majesty of his Supreme Dark-Gold Core shrank inward until his external aura appeared as nothing more than a standard, newly broken-through Early Core Formation cultivator—carrying just a faint, deliberate trace of sluggishness at the edges to match the illusion Elder Bai had projected toward the Main Peak.

Beside him, Instructor Qing also restrained her six-cloud Valkyrie Core aura into a steady, composed Early Core presence.

"Ready, Elder Qing?" Lin Tian asked with a faint smile.

Qing glanced at him from the corner of her dark eyes, a tiny, secret curve touching her lips before her expression settled into her calm, dignified martial mask.

"Lead the way, Elder Lin."

Lin Tian pressed his palm against the internal rune of the three-foot-thick profound-ice stone doors.

RUMBLE—CLANG!

As the heavy stone doors parted and the thirty-six Void-Iron Array Flags in the outer gallery retracted smoothly into Elder Bai’s waiting sleeves, Lin Tian and Qing stepped out side by side into the upper corridor—where Elder Liu and Elder Bai were already waiting to escort the sect’s two newest Core Formation Elders straight up to the Main Peak.

***

Elder Qing is glowing, but the other ladies are waiting outside. Guess who gets jealous first. Drop your Power Stones and Golden Tickets.