Chapter 98: Backlash from divine flame
The serene, blue pool beneath the massive roots of the World Tree rippled quietly, reflecting the gentle emerald glow of the high canopy. Min-jae sat cross-legged on the smooth flat stone at the water’s edge, his hands resting on his knees. In mid-air between his palms, the tennis-ball-sized sphere of the Divine Flame floated silently, its deep crimson light pulsing slowly like a calm heartbeat.
"I am opening my internal channels now, Xiao," Min-jae said, his voice a low, steady baritone that carried absolute quiet confidence. "Stay alert. The moment the refinement cycle hooks into my core, the ambient heat might spike."
Standing at the entrance of the giant root archway, Liu Xiao turned her face toward him, her long green-and-white silk gown drifting softly around her exceptionally voluptuous hourglass silhouette. She gripped her jade world-staff firmly, her exotic emerald eyes pooling with an intense, fanatical love.
"Do not worry about the place, husband," Liu Xiao murmured, her majestic voice warm with deep, human emotion. "I have already woven my unsealed nature energy into the surrounding tree lines. Even if the entire beast wave crashes against these roots, not a single drop of chaotic qi will disturb your meditation cushion. Focus entirely on your path."
Min-jae closed his eyes, taking a deep, slow breath to ground his focus. With a sharp mental command, he unsealed the primary conduits of his Vajra World-Breaker Core, stretching his spiritual senses outward to firmly wrap around the floating crimson flame.
The initial connection was perfectly smooth. The raw, heavy warmth of the treasure easily glided through his open meridians, spreading a comfortable, pure solar friction across his chest. He could feel his inner energy boundaries beginning to swell, the progression needle steadily climbing toward the Level 62 mark.
But just as the refinement cycle reached its absolute, final threshold, a sudden, catastrophic shift violently convulsed within his chest.
A massive, blinding explosion of pure crimson energy violently blasted outward from Min-jae’s skin, shattering the nearby stone blocks into fine dust. The Divine Flame didn’t cleanly merge into his core; instead, it completely unraveled, turning into a raging, swirling vortex of white-hot solar fire that trapped him entirely within a dense cylinder of blinding heat. Min-jae’s eyes snapped wide, his obsidian pupils flaring with an uncontrollable golden light as the temperature inside his veins skyrocketed to an agonizing, suffocating degree. He didn’t even understand what was happening to his own internal paths.
Before he could forcefully cut the connection, the golden smoke of his system interface violently manifested in mid-air through the flames, flashing with a sudden, dark-red warning text.
[Sovereign Cultivation Interface Alert!]
[A Critical Error has occurred during the Final Refinement Stage!]
[Warning: The unrefined elemental heat of the Divine Flame has over-saturated your meridians, multiplying its raw compression power by 400% every second!]
[Emergency Resolution: Your human flesh cannot contain this volume of solitary fire-law energy! You require a compatible Divine Soul partner to immediately execute a dual-cultivation loop to distribute the thermal load, or your internal channels will completely implode!]
Min-jae let out a low, gravelly groan of pure physical agony, his teeth clenching so hard his jaw ached. The un-blockable heat was tearing through his Vajra Deity Body from the inside out, turning his veins into lines of liquid fire. He slowly lost his footing, his strength failing as he dropped heavily onto his knees. His palms slammed flat against the damp earth, his fingers digging deep into the moss and dirt as he struggled with everything he had just to keep his consciousness from slipping away.
Through the shifting waves of distortion and heat, his blurry vision drifted toward the base of the massive World Tree.
Liu Xiao was currently resting beneath the thick roots. She had just spent a massive amount of her unsealed nature core to erect an absolute, un-breachable protective barrier around the entire clearing to shield them from the outer beast roars, and she was quietly resting with her eyes closed, completely unaware of the sudden internal catastrophe.
Because she was leaning back in a relaxed, deep slumber, her long, flowing green-and-white silk gown had slightly shifted out of alignment. Min-jae’s burning gaze first fell onto her exposed legs. They were staggeringly, breathlessly sexy—smooth, pale porcelain skin gleaming softly under the dim blue light of the pool, the elegant fabric riding up slightly past her soft, rounded thighs as she rested.
His eyes, clouded by the intense heat of the flame, slowly tracked upward along her dangerous curves. He saw the full, voluptuous line of her hips, her dress clinging flawlessly to her narrow, incredibly thin waist that gave her a stunning, perfect hourglass silhouette. Further up, her exceptionally large, heavy breasts were rising and falling in a slow, rhythmic pattern as she breathed, the thin silk straining against her full curves with every deep breath. Finally, his eyes moved past the smooth line of her pale neck, landing on her pouty, sweet red lips and her gorgeous, tranquil face.
"No..." Min-jae gasped out, his voice a ragged, desperate rasp that carried a deep wave of human shyness and agonizing pain. He squeezed his eyes shut, his knuckles turning white against the dirt as he forced his head down. "I have to... control it... No..."
But the restriction lines inside his chest violently snapped again, and the crimson flames surrounding his body grew twice as large, sending a loud, crackling explosion of heat across the water.
The sharp noise and the sudden spike in temperature forcefully cut through Liu Xiao’s rest. Her long eyelashes fluttered, and she slowly opened her exotic emerald-green eyes. The moment her gaze landed on Min-jae’s trembling, kneeling frame on the ground, her noble composure completely shattered into pure, desperate panic.
"Min-jae?!" Liu Xiao cried out, her voice cracking with thick, human emotion as she leaped up from the roots, her long silk train sweeping wildly across the moss. She rushed straight into his personal space, dropping onto her knees directly in front of him. "What happened?! Why is the flame acting like this?! Are you okay?!"
"Xiao... get... get back," Min-jae managed to say, his body shaking violently as he talked very hardly, using every ounce of his remaining willpower just to keep his predatory golden eyes from locking onto her face. Fresh blood dripped continuously from his lip where he had bitten it through the pain. "The flame is out of my control right now, The heat... it’s too much."
"Don’t speak!" Liu Xiao pleaded, her large emerald eyes pooling with thick, frantic tears of pure love as she watched him suffer. Without a single shred of hesitation, she reached forward and placed her slender, soft hands firmly onto his dark armor shoulders, trying to dump her nature-healing streams straight into his neck meridians to soothe the burn. "Let me stabilize your paths! Hold on, husband!"
But the moment her cool, divine skin made direct physical contact with his armor plates, the dual-cultivation system interface violently short-circuited. The sudden, agonizing rush of pure desire and fire-law energy completely wiped away the last lines of Min-jae’s logical control.
Before Liu Xiao could understand what was happening, Min-jae’s strong fingers forcefully shot forward, grabbing her slender wrists in an ironclad grip. With a single, explosive movement driven by pure physical instinct, he forcefully pushed her straight down onto the soft, moss-covered ground, his heavy frame hovering directly over her voluptuous silhouette.
Liu Xiao’s face turned completely, intensely red from her forehead to her throat. Her body was slightly trembling beneath him, her emerald eyes wide with a mixture of absolute surprise and a deep, overwhelming wave.
"Min-jae... what... what are you doing?" Liu Xiao whispered, her majestic voice shaking softly in the quiet hollow.
"I... I don’t know," Min-jae said, his deep baritone dropping into a raw, seductive whisper as he controlled himself very hardly, his chest heaving violently against her full breasts. His golden eyes started burning again with an unhinged, predatory intensity as he stared straight down into her lips. "It’s all because of this... this Divine Flame. It’s burning my mind."
He let out a ragged, agonizing breath, his forehead lightly resting against her shoulder as the crimson fire around them roared.
"Liu Xiao... I can’t take this anymore," Min-jae said hardly, his voice cracking with a deep, emotional desperation that completely bared his soul to her. "Help me... Xaio."
Looking up at his blood-stained jaw and his frantic, adoring eyes, Liu Xiao finally realized exactly what actually happened to his body. She knew that no amount of standard nature-healing or barrier arrays would ever work to soothe this type of baseline element failure. There was only one single, absolute path for Min-jae to survive this transaction.
The panic and fear completely vanished from her face, replaced by a beautiful, fanatical, and deeply submissive love that had just rewritten the rules of her goddess soul.
Min-jae slowly pulled his upper frame back, his body still shaking as he tried to lift himself up. Liu Xiao didn’t try to run away. She smoothly sat up right next to him on the soft moss, her long green-and-white silk gown draping beautifully over her curves as she reached out, her soft fingers gently cupping his burning cheek.
Her face was still incredibly red, her heart racing violently against her ribs, but her exotic emerald eyes were completely fixed onto his face with absolute, ironclad devotion.
"Don’t worry, husband," Liu Xiao whispered softly, her sweet lips curving into a beautiful, adoring smile in the warm amber light. "I am your wife. I will help you."