Chapter 322 - 321: Senior Brother, How Should I Move?

On the way back from seeing Bell Fish, Jiang Qiu’s mind was consumed with the Fusion Technique. He still hadn’t decided which method to use.

Among the options, male-female fusion was undoubtedly the simplest and least risky. After all, the life of the Cultivation Dish was entirely in his hands. How could anything possibly go wrong?

Choosing Soul Devouring would mean losing an incredibly powerful Nether Dark Spirit Converter; the loss would far outweigh the gain.

The final option, Dual Soul Coexistence, meant placing the fate of his very soul in her hands. Life and death would no longer be a one-sided decision; she could severely injure or even kill him.

Trust was never just a matter of words. Casually placing his Dao Entry Realm soul in Xue’s hands was out of the question. After all, he hadn’t even been to the Nine Venerable Great Realm yet, and there was still so much he had left to do.

SIGH... Letting out a long breath, Jiang Qiu turned to look at Xue, whose eyes were sparkling. "Maybe... we should just do the male-female fusion?"

"Okay!"

Without a moment’s hesitation, Xue’s eyes curved into crescents. She smiled, her expression full of an anticipation that seemed as if she’d been waiting for many years.

There was no sense of impropriety in her eyes, nor had she ever given any thought to the implications of male-female fusion, because... she had no idea what it even was!

"Do you even know what male-female fusion is?" Jiang Qiu raised an eyebrow, finding his palms were suddenly slick with sweat. "A thing like male-female fusion..."

"Of course I do!"

Xue’s reply was decisive, her eyes sparkling. ’If it weren’t for her mask,’ he thought, ’I’d love to see if she’s blushing.’

"How could you know?"

Jiang Qiu was baffled.

The concept of male-female fusion wasn’t native to the Yin Yang Great Realm. Bell Fish had even mentioned that the fusion methods here weren’t set in stone; for some, simply sharing "meals" together over a long time was considered a form of fusion.

However, as the Yin Yang Great Realm began to interact with other Great Realms, the method of male-female fusion was introduced. Some had even used it to easily break through the Dharma Realm.

In practice, however, achieving male-female fusion was extremely difficult.

Often, both the Cultivation Dish and the Cultivator were female. Since females were more common in the Yin Yang Great Realm, male-female fusion was impossible for them.

Furthermore, even when a male and female pair attempted it, it would sometimes fail, as if they simply weren’t destined for that path.

Affinity was crucial.

Perhaps this was a major reason for the gradual decline of the Hundred Ghosts Dao.

"I’ve known about male-female fusion since birth," Xue said, tilting back her swan-like neck and puffing out her chest with great pride. "It’s just that no one was ever interested in me. I couldn’t cultivate before, so I never had the chance to become someone else’s Cultivation Dish."

"Since birth?" Jiang Qiu’s brow smoothed. ’That makes sense...’

Xue was a product of Yin Yang Summoned Life. Her original soul wasn’t from this world, so there was bound to be some kind of inherited knowledge within it.

Even if it had been distorted by the Laws of this world, a part of her past life’s memories would have remained. Perhaps that was how she knew about male-female fusion.

It made perfect sense that the instinct for male-female fusion, as a basic drive of a species with two sexes, would be passed down.

"But are you really willing to... fuse with me? What does male-female fusion mean to you, exactly?"

He studied Xue’s body, which had lost some of its youthful immaturity. Their eyes met, and hesitation still lingered in Jiang Qiu’s heart. For some reason, his thoughts drifted to a certain girl from back home, Flower.

That girl, born in the Northern Boundary in an age when Spirit Charm had all but vanished, whose greatest value seemed to lie in procreation. At sixteen, she was supposed to go with Ice, the Young Master of the South Mountain Tribe, to fulfill her life’s duty.

But in the end, she stayed behind, saying she didn’t want to be married off.

Until she disappeared into the South Mountain Range...

Perhaps different Great Realms had different philosophies, but Jiang Qiu himself was unwilling to do such a thing lightly—not unless there was a tangible benefit, like advancing his Realm.

But Xue’s eyes reflected none of that moral calculus. She simply wanted to fuse with him and had clearly been looking forward to it for a long time.

In fact, after a month of living together—eating, bathing, and even receiving her completely unabashed massages—Jiang Qiu had developed a strong resistance. And yet, he’d also grown even more attached to this Cultivation Dish.

"Male-female fusion just means having babies, right?" Xue said, failing to read the complexity in Jiang Qiu’s eyes. She giggled. "In my memories, when a man and a woman fuse, her belly gets bigger and bigger, and after about ten months, a baby comes out. It’s just like the infants from Yin Yang Summoned Life."

As she recalled the common knowledge from another Great Realm that kept surfacing with her advances in cultivation, her heart began to race and her cheeks grew hot.

’I must not have fused with a man in my past life,’ she thought. ’Otherwise, why would I be looking forward to it so much?’

’It must be because of that regret that I’m so eager now.’

’But...’

"It seems people can’t have children in this world. My body doesn’t have the ability to bear life." The light in Xue’s eyes dimmed as she touched her stomach. "Yin Yang created everything, and I am just a body they created for cultivation."

"..."

With a slight frown, Jiang Qiu fell silent for a moment. He stroked Xue’s head, then took her hand and led her toward the bathing pool. "Let’s bathe first."

’For the sake of Cultivation, it seems I’ll have to take that final step of fusion after all,’ he mused. ’Perhaps the ultimate goal of the Hundred Ghosts Dao is for two beings to merge into one?’

"Mhm, mhm!"

Xue nodded her head rapidly, like a woodpecker. She broke into a light run, pulling Jiang Qiu by the hand. "Hurry up, Senior Brother! I want to fuse with you!"

"You’re a girl, try not to be so impatient..." Jiang Qiu’s heart hammered in his chest. He raised an eyebrow, giving her a look of mock reproach, but inwardly he felt a pleasant warmth. ’Tsk, why can’t I suppress this desire anymore?’

Before he and Xue had broken through to the Spirit Body Realm, the desire deep within his soul had been irrepressible. But after that breakthrough, his Dragon Race bloodline had suppressed it.

But now, that desire had been rekindled.

’I feel like this desire is toying with me,’ he thought. ’Is it the Hundred Ghosts Dao, or is it just me?’

He glanced down. ’...Maybe it is just me. This body is brimming with virility.’

RUSTLE...

Her gossamer dress slipped off as if carried by a breeze. A pair of fair, rosy feet padded onto the jade floor beside the bathing pool. The girl turned with a graceful smile, covering her chest with her hands as she waved. "I’m getting in first, Senior Brother."

SPLASH! With a spray of water, she slipped into the pool like a piece of white jade sinking into clear water.

Jiang Qiu was speechless.

Jiang Qiu got into the pool as well. By now, Xue understood the differences between her body and his and no longer asked why he was built so differently.

Just as she did when she gave him massages, he let Xue straddle his lap. She wrapped her arms around him, steam swirling between their chests, and her voice, as clear and bright as a songbird’s, reached his ear. "Senior Brother, how do we fuse? I don’t know the specific... movements. I’ve never tried before..."