An unfamiliar feeling of surge ripped him out of his sleep.

When he managed to open an eye, Gingge sat at the foot of the bed with her legs crossed.

In his drowsy state, it took him a moment to piece the two things together.

She’s breaking though?

He wanted to jump up and hug her, but reminded himself not to disturb unnecessarily. Aside from that, he’d miss out on substantial progress if he let her breakthrough Qi go to waste.

As he tried to sense his surroundings, he felt them brimming with a familiar energy. It eagerly streamed into him at his will, driving his cultivation forward.

The boon didn’t even need to be absorbed, becoming his the moment it touched him. For the first time since leaving the sect, he made significant progress. 

But as the gaps between stages got wider with advancement, he just managed to reach halfway to the fourth stage by the time her Qi thinned out.

Gingge’s eyes fluttered open and tears welled up. “Lo’er! I made it! Finally, I’m no longer…” ‘trash’ was only muttered.

“Yes you did, all by yourself. Want to try it out in the courtya- Right, your family members can’t know, so scratch that.”

“It’s fine, rather, I want to show you something.” She got closer and put his hand on her stomach.  “Feel inside, but don’t freak out, ok?”

Her words achieved the exact opposite, making him have a very unpleasant association. Pregnant?

When he wanted to push the thought aside, he realized how he had yet to learn of any form of birth control on Terra.

Meifen and Huling had dragged him into bed without apparent worry, the issue had drifted into the back of his mind over time.

But these two lived in a dual cultivation sect for most of their lives, so it was possible that Gingge lacked knowledge of the method.

Nonono. Calm down. She just broke through. So it’s probably about that.

“Can’t you just tell me?”

“No, it’s better if you see it for yourself.”

Not helpful… 

But lamenting wasn’t either. His Qi pierced her skin and sunk in. 

At first, it was like grasping in the dark. But then, he was touched by a passing strand and for a moment, her body, for the lack of a better term, ‘lit up’ in his mind.

Like an x-ray, he saw her channels and the slight cluster below her navel, everything outlined by the Qi that coursed through them. His Qi.

And not what he just sent into her abdomen. It had been in her body from the start. 

In turn, none of hers could be felt. 

The strand flowed along and out of his reach, breaking the connection. Everything went dark again for him, making her body the sheer bottomless abyss the outside was.

He opened his eyes. “What happened to you? Where did your Qi go?”

“I don’t know. It was gone when I woke up. It feels good when you touch it, though. Could you do that again?” She rubbed her thighs together.

Ku Lo grabbed her shoulders and fought his urge to shake her. “This isn’t the time for that! You lost your Qi!”

“Yours replaced it. It made me break through, so it can’t be bad, right?”

“What about using it?”

“That’s …” She averted her gaze.

“Yes?”

“i can’t.”

His forced calm was blown off. We’re talking about losing her power! “How is that not bad?”

“As long as I can cultivate with you, I’m satisfied. And I’ll be weaker than Lo’er and sister anyway!” Her voice became louder towards the end and a desperate undertone snuck into it.

Pressing her to his chest, he breathed out slowly. “No, I’m sorry. This is likely my fault. So even if you don’t mind, I’ll find a way around it.”

“I’m fine, really. Maybe dual cultivation works even better now! Want to try?” A hand began caressing his penis.

“Not until we figured out everything there is to this.” He swatted away the hand and touched her stomach again.

In her body, his Qi circulated as before. It flowed in slow circles around, drawing an almost hypnotic pattern.

Since she can’t control it, maybe I still can?

Putting his guess to the test, he tried to move the Qi inside her around.

It worked, but the process felt awkward. Like fumbling through a narrow hole. 

He couldn’t attempt to use a Yin Paw as both her hands were on his body, but comparing basic Qi usage, it would likely be significantly harder.

Regardless, casting through her had no obvious advantages and was impractical in a fight. What he wanted was to allow her to cast.

Thus, he concentrated on the cluster below her navel. If anything was related to Qi control, it would be this. And if he managed to find something wrong with it — even figure out a solution in the best case — he might be able to restore her ability to fight by herself.

Problem being that Qi and body were two distinct things. The one had an effect on the other, but an instinctual one. The strengthening effect of cultivation, breakthroughs and his healing technique all worked by letting each do something on their own.

Beyond that, he could only guess the structure of her channels by observing how the flow went.

And in this regard, he could find no irregularity even when comparing her to himself.

So he was left with two possibilities. Either something was wrong with the physical representation of the cluster, or influencing another’s Qi was an impossibility by design.

As small silver lining stood the fact that the Qi in her body had the same density as his, meaning that her attacks would pack the punch of a third stage cultivator once she learned how to draw upon it. 

He gave up on trying to find a solution now and withdrew his hand from her.

Gingge hopped into his lap the moment he did. 

“One second. It’s a bit awkward to ask this late, but how do you prevent getting pregnant?”

“Huh? Cultivators hardly get children without special preparation. Do you want one?”

“No, no, I was just concerned.”

“Anyway, boring, let’s do something more fun… “

… 

As it turned out, she had been right about the improved dual cultivation. The generated Qi was already ‘his’ from the start, increasing the absorption speed many times over for both of them.

Even if that raised the question how the cultivation Qi came to be in the first place.

He always had figured that it had something to do with the different energies clashing. After all, if it just served to arouse their respective energies and thus draw out their potential, why would it be given to the partner?

But the fact that he could also get benefits from his own Qi made this theory seem rather unlikely. Unless there was a difference he wasn’t aware of. 

Assuming that that was not the case, how could the immense gains of dual cultivation be explained? 

But his line of thought got interrupted by Gingge demanding another round and she got interrupted by a member of the family coming to inform them about the arrival of a tournament emissary.

They threw on some clothes and followed into the hall.

Qingling sat in her usual chair and looked slightly better than before. 

The emissary was a middle aged man with a haggard, but somehow athletic build. Donned in a grey robe and armed with a slender saber, he turned out to be a member of the sword sect.

It made sense, considering that no other force was powerful enough to decide the distribution of the clans’ financial foundations.

“Du Yimu greets the Huang family head.” He lowered his head with energic, finely controlled movements.

“The Huang family welcomes you, emissary of the sword sect.”

“As you well know, the mining redistribution tournament is near and the sword sect branch has thus sent me to inquire about your participation.”

“We shall join this time.”

“Sister, no! You’re still injured.” Gingge cut in from the side.

Qingling assumed a straighter pose. “My decision is final.”

One of the Huang elders spoke up. “Young lady Gingge, your concern for your sister is admirable. But our family is in a dire position. As such, we can only implore you to take part in her stead, even if such matters are below you.”

“Messenger, tell the branch leader that the Huang will take part in the tournament. This matter will be settled privately. I bid you farewell.”

“I shall relay the message.” Despite her arguably rude tone, the emissary showed no change in expression and left calmly.