Chapter 83: Cultivation?

Theo took off his shirt.

The candlelight flickered across the room. He was no longer the frail young man who had first left home. His lean, muscular frame was well-defined, exuding a sense of resilient strength. Having grown taller, he now stood at six feet. Compared to those with so-called ideal martial bone structures, his proportions were far more harmonious.

"Uh... pants?" Theo asked with meticulous seriousness.

Liana slightly furrowed her delicate brows. Her eyes like shattered frost.

What do you think?

Theo cleared his throat, unembarrassed, and sat down beside her.

A faint fragrance drifted in the air. His shoulder itched slightly. Was it her hair?

Theo’s mind was a bit scrambled. He was a perfectly normal guy. The most intimate contact he ever had with the opposite sex was holding hands with a high school girlfriend back on his home world.

But now... He was facing Liana. A peerless beauty whose looks were simply unfair. And he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

"Turn around."

Liana spoke again.

Theo stiffly turned his body.

He saw her jade-like fingers, wreathed in swirling indigo energy, pulsing with astonishing cold.

"My energy will enter your dantian."

"First, try to guide it with your own. If you can harmonize without being harmed, we can proceed."

"Got it."

Theo pushed aside his thoughts and nodded seriously, meeting her gaze.

Truthfully, he wasn’t sure if this would work.

After all, any energy that entered his body usually vanished without a trace into his Abyssal Physique!

Liana gave a slight nod. Her icy palm rested lightly over Theo’s dantian.

Instantly, indigo light scattered outward. Transforming into wisps of frost-blue sparks that danced across his skin.

Cold... But far more bearable than during their duel on the arena stage.

And this time, it didn’t disappear. His fifteen primary meridians locked it in place. Seeing no adverse reaction, Liana continued.

The frost-blue sparks seeped past his skin, converging toward his core.

Theo’s breath carried a chill, as though his body were submerged in ice. The bone-deep cold didn’t hurt. It just left him stiff and slightly numb. But that was only because of his robust physique.

An ordinary person wouldn’t have lasted a second.

His gaze drifted to the girl before him. Her expression solemn and focused. The suffering she endured since childhood had to be far worse than this, right?

She never trained her physical body.

Yet she endured harsher cold every single day of her life.

No wonder her personality was so icy.

"Focus." Liana’s voice was soft but brooked no argument.

The ice block in training mode. Theo snapped back to attention. Following the method described in *Phoenix Cries Over Heaven’s Marsh*, he began circulating his own energy, enveloping the indigo energy within his dantian.

His martial insights paid off. It felt like he had done this countless times before.

The two energies intertwined like kneaded dough, merging and separating at his will.

Liana’s eyelids flickered.

He only just began condensing Inner Scenery energy. Yet the sheer volume of his reserves surpassed hers? That alone wasn’t too shocking. He had been training with Vespera.

But... His dantian’s resilience was absurd. She tried to stop infusing energy moments ago, yet Theo’s dantian seemed bottomless. Capable of containing everything.

He really could take it all...

Theo grinned.

Liana said nothing, silently increasing the flow.

Half an hour later. The infusion suddenly stopped. Theo opened his eyes, puzzled. "Why stop?"

"I am out."

Liana was silent.

Just what was his constitution? Was his dantian innately this strong, or did his body refinement forge it into something monstrous? If the former, his potential might rival her own.

"I am good now."

Theo confidently assessed his condition. Truthfully, most of his effort went into keeping his own energy from incinerating Liana’s.

According to martial theory, harmonizing foreign energies was supposed to be difficult. Yet he hadn’t struggled much at all.

"Your turn."

Liana nodded, signaling she was ready.

Theo replicated the process, sending his pale red energy into her.

The next instant. A sharp pain lanced through her dantian.

Even with Theo restraining it, his energy radiated pure annihilation. The heat of a primordial forge.

Her expression didn’t change, nor did she make a sound. But a faint flush colored her cheeks. Theo carefully controlled his energy, watching her face.

"You okay?"

Liana pressed her lips together.

The determination in her eyes was palpable.

"I am fine."

Theo trusted she wouldn’t push herself to collapse. He continued, though he redoubled his focus on tempering his energy’s ferocity.

Time passed... Two intertwined energies coiled within Liana’s dantian.

She succeeded. But the process was far harder for her than for Theo.

The technique wasn’t the issue. It was the unruly, destructive nature of his energy. Even with his assistance, assimilation was grueling!

"Ready for the next step."

"Right."

"First acupoint. Celestial Pursuit."

Following the manual, their energies began cycling through each other’s bodies. Flowing through hundreds of acupoints in sequence. Theo remained unfazed throughout.

But Liana... Occasionally, the intensity of the surges made her tremble involuntarily.

The night deepened. Half of it passed by the time they completed a full cycle of *Phoenix Cries Over Heaven’s Marsh*. Channeling energy through every required acupoint.

Theo opened his eyes, brimming with vigor.

"Continue?"

Prolonged exposure to foreign energy placed strain on the body.

Given her constitution, she could endure further sessions, but the discomfort would grow. More than that, she felt mentally drained. The entire process demanded absolute focus.

"Let us sleep."

Mainly.

Elara was looking for her teacher inside the World Seed. He couldn’t delay any longer.

Ah, youth. He was out the moment his head hit the pillow.

Liana somehow felt a wave of relief wash over her as she watched him drift into sleep. It seemed he wouldn’t be able to attempt a second time tonight.

Their first dual-cultivation came to an end... Liana lay down as well, closing her eyes.

*******

Several days passed in the blink of an eye... During this time, Theo’s daily routine was remarkably disciplined.

In the mornings, he attended Vespera’s combat training sessions. Though he still couldn’t fully withstand the pressure of her domain, the duration he could endure grew longer each day. He even began developing a vague sixth sense.

This improvement made his nightly dual-cultivation sessions with Liana smoother than ever.

He learned to control his internal energy precisely, ensuring he didn’t overburden his cultivation partner.

Theo noticed that their progress in practicing *Phoenix Cries Over Heaven’s Marsh* had reached an astonishing speed.

Previously, he needed to continuously absorb the essence of the world and refine it into his own energy. But with Liana’s assistance, this process accelerated by at least tenfold.

Harmony with the heavens, rare spiritual pills, his master’s brutal training, and dual cultivation with the ice block.

Wait. Did something strange just sneak into that list?