The successive breakthroughs in the banquet hall startled Su Chunshuang, who had been sneaking over.
At this moment, she stood by the side, holding a fruit platter, her face full of confusion.
‘How could they be eating and drinking, and then one by one start sitting cross-legged, meditating, and breaking through? These people, at the very least, are at the peak of the Spirit Transformation stage; the commotion of their breakthroughs is by no means small. And their master hasn’t even started his lecture yet.’
Was it because of the wine?
Currently, within the hall, as everyone continued to drink the spiritual wine, the benefits they gained from the wine far exceeded what they would have obtained from listening to a so-called lecture.
Most people, even if they didn’t break through on the spot, had a gleam of enlightenment in their eyes, gaining new insights into their own cultivation bottlenecks and the laws of heaven and earth themselves.
What’s more, some cultivators even found that hidden injuries and old ailments left from their early years of cultivation began to gradually heal under the nourishment of the vast medicinal power contained in the wine.
It could be said that everyone in the banquet hall had received various benefits from this spiritual wine.
Even Yan Dangmo, at this moment, narrowed his eyes and gained from this wine many inspirations on how to perfect the laws of his own small world.
However, it was precisely this shift in attention caused by the breakthroughs that gave Su Chunshuang an opportunity.
Carrying a fruit platter, she silently approached Tai Lingxuan, putting on a respectful demeanor.
While Tai Lingxuan was completely focused on watching the fourth person who had just begun to break through, Su Chunshuang’s wrist moved swiftly.
Almost imperceptibly, she stole the wine pot in front of Tai Lingxuan and tucked it into her bosom.
Then she quickly replaced it with an empty pot.
The whole set of movements was smooth and fluid, and Tai Lingxuan didn’t notice at all.
But that wasn’t because Tai Lingxuan couldn’t detect it, but because she had no guard against Su Chunshuang at all.
At this moment, Tai Lingxuan was also looking somewhat distressed at the rising and falling vortexes of spiritual power in the hall, calculating secretly in her heart.
‘I absolutely have to hide the remaining half jar of wine and never waste it like this again. And that boy, Yuyang, when he gets back, I must teach him what it means to be thrifty!’
Thinking this, Tai Lingxuan picked up the wine pot again, intending to pour herself a small cup.
But as soon as her hand lifted the pot, she sensed something wrong.
‘Empty?’
Tai Lingxuan was stunned, her brows furrowed.
She shook it again to confirm her feeling was correct.
‘Where’s my wine? Didn’t I only drink two small cups? How did it hit the bottom?’
On the other side, Su Chunshuang, having succeeded smoothly, carried her tray and quietly slipped back to the side hall.
As soon as she entered, Su Chunshuang took out the wine pot from under the tray, placed it on the table, and lowered her voice: “Here, I’ve brought you the wine!”
“But this wine seems quite extraordinary. I saw quite a commotion in the main hall because of it.”
Ling Xi saw the wine pot and immediately came over, her face full of anticipation.
Gu Qiushui also came forward curiously.
She had also noticed the commotion in the main hall and was somewhat curious about the wine that caused it.
Gu Qiushui grabbed the wine pot, unscrewed the lid, and leaned her nose in.
A rich but not pungent aroma of wine rushed into her nostrils, seeping through her limbs and bones with her breath, making her spirit perk up.
“This wine smells quite fragrant,” she said.
Then, Gu Qiushui poured herself a full cup.
With a brief glance at the amber liquid, she tilted her head back and downed it in one gulp.
“Wait, Senior Sister…”
Ling Xi tried to stop her but it was too late.
The moment the wine entered her throat, Gu Qiushui felt an indescribable heat explode along her throat.
The heat instantly swept through her limbs and bones, as if her entire being had been thrown into a steamer.
At the same time, countless violent and pure spiritual forces began to madly impact her meridians.
“Mm… so bloated…”
Gu Qiushui’s expression changed, and she couldn’t help but grunt.
“Qiushui!”
Su Chunshuang was startled, not expecting such a violent reaction from drinking the wine.
Ling Xi’s eyes focused.
She quickly stepped forward, placed her hand on Gu Qiushui’s back, and transferred her own spiritual power into her body to help her sort out the violent wine force.
“Senior Sister, I forgot to tell you, this spiritual wine is extremely domineering. With our weak strength, we can only drink it slowly, little by little. We can’t rush it.”
Ling Xi had wanted to say this earlier but was too late.
Gu Qiushui bit her lip lightly, fully operating her cultivation method to refine the surging wine force inside her.
Before long, Gu Qiushui’s whole body was covered in fine beads of sweat.
After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, her complexion returned to normal, but her eyes were several times brighter than before, and her aura had become more stable.
“Phew—“
Gu Qiushui let out a long breath of turbid air.
“This wine… this wine is too strong.”
“But the effect of this wine…”
Feeling the changes in her body, a look of wonder appeared in Gu Qiushui’s eyes.
Seeing this, Su Chunshuang also felt eager to try, so she poured herself a small half-cup.
However, she wasn’t as reckless as Gu Qiushui; she only took a shallow sip.
Immediately, Su Chunshuang also felt a warm current flowing into her abdomen from the wine.
Where the wine passed, her limbs and bones tingled slightly.
The pleasant sensation made Su Chunshuang narrow her eyes involuntarily.
She also felt that the meridians and spiritual power within her body had become more stable and condensed under the effect of the wine force.
Ling Xi had long known that this wine had such miraculous effects, because she had drunk it before.
Seeing them beginning to taste it, Ling Xi also poured herself a small cup and slowly savored it.
At this moment, Tai Lingxuan sat in the main seat, her brows slightly furrowed.
In the main hall, the commotion of breakthroughs was still considerable.
Almost everyone had stopped eating and chatting, focusing instead on refining the wine and comprehending the laws.
Tai Lingxuan did not disturb them, but her mood was somewhat complicated.
After careful thought, she understood that it must have been Chunshuang, that girl, who had stolen the wine pot when she wasn’t paying attention.
“That girl,” Tai Lingxuan snorted lightly, muttering to herself, “Did she see the commotion in the hall and become greedy for this wine, wanting to use it to break through her own realm?”
“That silly girl.”
Tai Lingxuan shook her head and smiled bitterly instead.
“If she really wanted to drink it, why didn’t she just tell me directly?”
“This wine is rare, but I’m not so stingy as to begrudge it from my own disciple…”
As she murmured, thinking about Su Chunshuang being stuck in her current realm for many years without progress, Tai Lingxuan’s eyes dimmed slightly.
What constrained her was never talent, and in terms of effort, she was among the top of her disciples…
But she still…
Tai Lingxuan sighed softly, a wave of sadness rising in her heart.
‘I hope this wine can help her a little.’
Thinking this, Tai Lingxuan released her divine sense, probing into the adjacent side hall.
At a single glance, Tai Lingxuan’s expression changed.
In her divine sense perception, the scene in the side hall was simply indecent.
Gu Qiushui lay sprawled on the ground, her clothes disheveled, cleavage half-exposed, crawling around with a flushed face.
“Baa, baa… I’m a sheep… Junior Brother… I’m hungry…”
‘What kind of nonsense drunk madness is this girl having?’
On the other side, Su Chunshuang lay prone on the table, her pretty face also flushed, a string of crystal drool hanging from the corner of her mouth, and she was still clutching that wine pot tightly.
But what made Tai Lingxuan’s blood pressure skyrocket was that most of the wine in the pot hadn’t been drunk by them; it had been spilled, swinging from Su Chunshuang’s fingers, losing most of it.
In the room, the only decent one was Ling Xi, sitting cross-legged, seemingly meditating and digesting the wine force.
But for some reason, as she refined it, she was muttering something that sounded dangerous.
“If you fool around outside, I’ll bite off your bad thing!”
“No, first take the seed, then bite off…”
“These… these girls…”
Tai Lingxuan withdrew her divine sense, her face alternating between pale and red.
Taking a deep breath, she suppressed the urge to rush over and spank the three of them one by one.
‘Forget it, forget it. They’ve already drunk it. Today is a good day, I can’t get angry, I can’t get angry…’
Thinking this, Tai Lingxuan instead used her divine sense to seal the door of the side hall.
To prevent anyone from accidentally entering and seeing the disgraceful state of her three disciples.
That would be a huge loss of face.
Meanwhile, deep within the Xuan Family Secret Realm.
The path to the summit wound upward.
On both sides were sheer cliffs as if cut by knives and axes.
The sky shed an endless snow, accumulating a thick layer on the ground. Each footstep made a crunching sound.
Chen Yuyang and Xuan Ke walked in the snow, one after the other.
Here, they could only hear each other’s footsteps and the howling of the wind and snow.
“Phew…”
Xuan Ke tightened her cloak, but still felt a bone-piercing chill creeping in along her collar.
“This must be Cold Soul Snow!”
Xuan Ke said with difficulty.
She had seen records of this snow.
This Cold Soul Snow could freeze a cultivator’s spiritual power and blood energy.
Ordinary spiritual power shields could not withstand this bitter cold.
Even if one could barely resist, the spiritual power consumption would be more than ten times normal.
Moreover, this path stretched endlessly, with snow up to the calves, making each step extremely difficult.
And one had to constantly circulate spiritual power to keep warm.
With her cultivation level, she probably couldn’t even make it to the mountaintop.
Xuan Ke hugged her shoulders, her body trembling uncontrollably, her lips white from the cold, and even her voice trembled.
Raising her head, the girl looked at Chen Yuyang walking ahead, but saw him wearing only a thin blue long shirt, not even a slightly thicker outer garment.
Yet his steps remained steady, his expression still calm.
“You…”
Xuan Ke hurried to catch up and couldn’t help asking with confusion, “Aren’t you cold?”
‘I have a fire spirit root; my resistance to cold is already high. I can barely endure this severe cold. Although he has a Haoyang Body, his realm is only on par with mine. He shouldn’t be completely unaffected.’
Chen Yuyang paused in his steps, then turned to look at her, a hint of confusion in his eyes, as if he had only just realized the question.
“Cold?”
“It’s okay. Are you very cold?”
“Okay?”
Xuan Ke almost laughed in anger.
‘What do you mean by okay? And as for whether I’m cold, this guy should be able to see it if he has eyes.’
Thinking this, the somewhat irritated girl stepped forward.
Without saying a word, she quickly thrust her ice-cold hands toward his face.
However, the expected scene of the boy jumping up from the cold never happened.
Instead, a look of realization appeared on Chen Yuyang’s face, along with some helplessness.
“Well, I thought you could use lightning fire to keep warm…”
Hearing this, Xuan Ke couldn’t help rolling her eyes again and muttered, “That’s not something a cultivator of my level can do.”
“Still can’t do it at the peak of the Golden Core stage?”
Xuan Ke: “…”
“Well, maybe it’s something that requires a bit of enlightenment.”
After a pause, Chen Yuyang reached out and grabbed Xuan Ke’s hands, which she had already withdrawn.
Then, under her surprised gaze, he separated a wisp of his own flame and injected it into her body.