Xuefeng felt the atmosphere heat up as Nuwa locked her gaze on Anastasia. Even if he wanted to escape, she held him tight in place so he was forced to stay and get pulled into their battle.
"So you are also a fellow Queen," Anastasia pointed out as she gazed at Xuefeng. "I am honestly not surprised. Xuefeng does have this energy that can make us lonely Queens fall for him."
"I will not deny that. I naturally have the best man out there," Nuwa agreed fully before reaching up to caress his cheek. "I would do anything for him."
"That's only natural. You did a nice job earlier too," Anastasia praised as she watched amused. "I'm sorry I finished him though. You looked like you were struggling so I decided to help."
Nuwa returned a smile. "It's okay. I did my job anyway. Someone had to defend your Kingdom if the Queen wasn't strong enough."
Anastasia didn't give in to the provocation. "It was an unusual situation but there is hardly anything one can do to stop it. We have to protect our gardens and one of the guards committed this crime. It is a risk we have to take while managing one of the most powerful resources in our hands."
She paused before adding with a sigh, "I guess having a treasure that can boost one's strength by such amounts is really unfortunate. You are lucky your Race doesn't have to deal with it."
"Yeah, they don't have to deal with it because I would end it before anything happened, just like I did today. You are welcome," Nuwa replied unbothered. "Ah, right. I must give you some credit. The Mermaid Bloodline came in handy. Thank you for being so generous."
Xuefeng was already on his limits, ready to stop them. Their rate of fire was higher than he expected and he didn't see any signs of stopping. Both Nuwa and Anastasia didn't show any weaknesses either.
"Oh, It's alright. It was Xuefeng's request so I couldn't reject him," Anastasia replied as she sent Xuefeng a wink. "We enjoyed plenty of pleasant activities together and Xuefeng filled me with lots of juicy moments. I don't regret it at all."
"Good for you. I'm glad you enjoyed your time," Nuwa commented while preparing another bullet. "I hope you also—"
Too bad, she wasn't able to shoot as Xuefeng closed her mouth, stopping the battle completely.
"That's enough. Don't fight each other anymore," Xuefeng wished as he released her. "Did you finish consuming that young man's Soul?"
Nuwa wasn't mad at him for stopping her but it was clear she wanted to continue.
"We didn't fight. It was just a friendly conversation," Nuwa countered as he glanced at Anastasia. "Right?"
"Correct, we were just chatting," Anastasia agreed with a nod only to frown as she realized what Xuefeng just said. "Wait. You don't really think of absorbing an Ancient Soul without even having one, do you? Not to mention that this Soul still has the remains of a Forbidden Fruit. In the best-case scenario, your Soul will suffer an injury while in the worse case you will die."
"Hehe, is that so?" Nuwa chuckled as she didn't show any fear in her eyes. "It just happens that compared to that man, I know my limits.
Nuwa rubbed Xuefeng's arms and decided on her own, "Baby, hold me close, okay? I'm going to absorb his Soul now."
"Xuefeng, this is crazy. Stop her before she makes a mistake," Anastasia called out in warning. "If anything, at least wait for the Forbidden Fruit's effects to wear off."
Before Nuwa spoke again, Xuefeng stepped in and tightened his embrace around her.
"If Nuwa said she can do it, I believe in her. Since she already decided I can only support her," Xuefeng announced his stance and kissed Nuwa on the head. "Take your time baby."
Nuwa repaid him with a kiss before she closed her eyes. Her body immediately started burning as excess Soul Power began leaking through her body, but Xuefeng focused on regenerating her body to ease the process.
Meanwhile, Xuefeng called for their group to come down, not knowing how much time Nuwa would take.
'This is going to be interesting,' Ming commented first. 'She might even create her own Ancient Soul from this if she can handle the stress to her Soul.'
Xuefeng couldn't help but brighten at this news.
'What do you think are her chances?' Xuefeng asked excitedly, only to widen his eyes when he heard the answer.
'About fifty-fifty,' Tianshi pointed out casually. 'In half of the future scenarios, her Soul shatters and explodes and in half of them, she succeeds. Those are some good chances if you were to ask me.'
'So she can die at the flip of a coin?' Xuefeng question speechlessly. How was that good?
'Yup, basically,' Tianshi agreed before Ming followed up, 'But she doesn't know about that so it's good. She is confident so we can only hope she knows what she is doing.
Xuefeng gazed at Nuwa and seeing she was still smiling, he breathed to calm himself down.
She had to succeed!
Boom!
Just as he relaxed, the pressure coming from Nuwa doubled within a second. It was nothing in comparison to the time in the Dragon Tower but he could feel it constantly growing. It was almost as if she was—
'She broke through to the Celestial Stage!' Ming finished his thought, shocking everyone in their group. They were already watching from a distance but didn't approach to not disturb Nuwa.
'Didn't we just advance to the Immortal Stage?' Xuefeng asked. 'I thought she was absorbing Soul Power. Is she cultivating instead?'
'To break through to the Celestial Stage, one needs to create a Celestial Soul. With so much Soul Power at her disposal, she only needed a moment to reach another step on the ladder. Her next step will be transforming it into an Ancient Soul,' Ming informed.
'Will she become an Ancient Celestial then?'
'She can't, that's the tricky part. To become a full Ancient Celestial, she would need to form an Ancient Body as well. Usually, cultivators start with their body and only then proceed to form their Ancient Soul to be sure their body can handle it. Right now Nuwa has to basically use her Immortal Stage body as a home for her Ancient Soul,' Ming explained briefly. 'That's also one of the reasons why there are so many experts stuck at the Celestial Stage and they struggle to ascend for many years.'
Seeing that Xuefeng didn't take it well, she added, 'The good news is that as long as she can create her Ancient Soul, we can save her even if her body gives up. We have to be quick though or else her Soul will die.'
'That's not good news at all!' Xuefeng protested, not wanting to hear about Nuwa's death at all. 'How can we help her?'
Nuwa continued to grow stronger as they spoke, her aura doubling in power once again. She already started to shiver while she gripped onto his arm as if using him for support. As much as he believed in her and supported her, he would still worry if her life was in danger.
'You can't help her. This is her own battle,' Ming replied helplessly. 'All we can do is watch and hope for the best.'
"How is she?" Anastasia questioned after a long silence, looking at Nuwa with a different look from before. One could see more respect in her eyes as Nuwa grew stronger.
Xuefeng opened his mouth to reply but Nuwa was first, speaking out for herself.
"I'm obviously fine. How can be unwell in my Xuefeng's embrace?" Nuwa asked back as if it was just her normal cultivation routine but Xuefeng knew she was just pretending. Her body was trembling and muscles contracting with more intensity.
"Nuwa, focus," Xuefeng reminded as he kissed her ear and created an air bubble around them so no one would disturb them. "I will protect you so do your best."
"Mhmm…" Nuwa muttered as she collapsed into Xuefeng's arms, letting him hold her fully. He created a soft cloud and they sat down together.
It was probably the most relaxed Soul Cultivation that the Mermaid Kingdom has seen as all the Mermaids came back to watch the scene.
A minute later, even Xuefeng started to feel discomfort from Nuwa's Soul pressure but he didn't let go. He could see his presence gave Nuwa peace of mind, letting her focus on the job.
At least that's what he thought.
"Nuwa…" Xuefeng whispered as he felt Nuwa's butt wiggle on his crotch. That was not the time to get aroused but just a few moves of her sexy body made his soldier hard and ready for action.
"Aaahh…" Nuwa moaned into his ear as her arm wrapped around his head. She gripped hard as something in her body unlocked.
Boom!
With a single explosion, the growth accelerated rapidly as if she just swallowed another Forbidden Fruit.
'She broke through again!' Ming called out excitedly. 'Now the real challenge starts. Can she hold on till the Soul Power is exhausted?'
While Ming explained what was happening, Nuwa didn't even look like she was Cultivating when she made an unreasonable demand.
"My body has been shaking so much I suddenly got horny... I want my reward now… Lick me!"