The following evening Qian Yu finally woke up with a naked beauty asleep in his arms. Yesterday, or rather early morning today, they were like rabbits who did it to morning and only now did he wake up. 

Moving the stray hairs that covered her face, Qian Yu sighed as he stared at her priceless face.

“Mmm, are you getting up?” Sun Hong asked with her eyes still closed.

“Hmm no,” Qian Yu changed his mind as he laid back down and focused on cultivating. Yesterday, he had absorbed a lot of Yin qi from Sun Hong. However, the quantity of qi wasn’t the issue but rather, the quality. Not only had he absorbed lots of her yin qi, he also absorbed her Virgin Yin qi. Yet she was somebody at the strongest stage below the Martial Fighter! Her qi was numerous times higher in quality and as such, it would take more time and effort to refine even if his cultivation technique could easily gather and refine yin qi. 

‘Using Yang to gain Heaven’s authority, using yin to create lightning...’ Qian Yu recited as he focused on cultivating.

An hour passed as he was cultivating, and he suddenly felt the arms hugging him tighten as Sun Hong quietly said, “I will need to leave soon. This last week I have been with you, my heart has been at peace. I never thought that this day would have come but… I also want to increase my own strength.”

Hearing her words, Qian Yu opened his eyes and combed her soft red hair as he thought for a few minutes. Sighing, he asked, “What are you planning?” 

“Qian Yu… do you think I’m weak?” she said. 

“Of course not!” She was the strongest person he knew. In the soul foundation stage, she could easily take on those at the same levels.

“But… I’m weak… In front of those Martial Fighters… I’m nothing,” she bit her lips.

“Sigh, I think I will leave the Soba Empire soon. I have recently reached the late stage of soul foundation but the recent events have allowed me to reach the threshold for entering the Martial Fighter stage. I’m so close! For me, the best way for me to gain mastery is to continuously fight... but I’m afraid that I can’t really fight against others here with the recent events. I’ll also have to prepare a lot for when I break through to the Martial Fighter stage,” she said.

“Whenever one ascends to a Martial Fighter or higher realms, they have a chance of incurring a natural phenomenon or some sort of signal. As for me, that'll likely be the case,” Sun Hong continued.

A frown crept up on Qian Yu’s face as he heard her words. Silently, minutes passed as he thought.

 ‘Sigh, it looks like good things are indeed short,’ Qian Yu sighed as he thought about what he should say. Of course he wanted her to stay with him but that was selfish of him. Meanwhile a part of him also wanted to see her grow stronger as well so that she would never get hurt again. 

“Hmm, did you come up with a plan yet?” Qian Yu asked.

“Mmm, not really,” she shook her head.

“Alright, how about you go to the Xia Empire? You said you have never gone to the Southern Ice Continent. In about two and a half months, I should be back there. The country isn’t that big but we have our own talents and areas to explore as well. Also, when you breakthrough, there are areas of land completely unpopulated near the Southern part of the country,” Qian Yu offered a solution.

“Mmm, that sounds like a great idea,” Sun Hong smiled as she realized that this would fit their agendas.

“Should we go out and do stuff?” Qian Yu asked now that they reached a compromise.

“Hmm. Nah, I only care about two things. Strength…” Sun Hong stopped talking as she moved her hands and reached for Qian Yu’s family jewels. “And you,” she smiled.

Soon, another few days of passion passed and before long, Qian Yu watched as Sun Hong left the city. Looking at the cloaked figure, he smiled as he thought about the twists and turns that life presented them. As she disappeared from the horizon, Qian Yu went back into the hotel as he returned to cultivating.

A few days later, Qian Yu walked out from the hotel as he finally finished refining and absorbing the Yin qi. Other than eating and sleeping, Qian Yu and Sun Hong had spent the rest of the time dual cultivating and now, after successfully refining all of the Virgin Yin qi and Yin qi, he had managed to easily enter the 4th stage of qi gathering.

Now, Qian Yu went to look around as he had been behind on the current trends. Sitting down and eating some soba noodles, he listened to the surrounding people as he ate. 

“I can’t believe they are still searching for the two rogue cultivators that managed to successfully pass the 9th floor. All the other 6 who cleared the maze were either from regular sects or had strong backgrounds” man A said.

Following up, man B said, “Yea, what’s crazier is that the male cultivator was at the 2nd realm of qi gathering while the female one was at the late stage of soul foundation. He just got his ass carried god damn it. I even heard rumors that the female cultivator smurfed on Chen Bai!”. 

“Tsk, all the Martial Fighters looking for them are going crazy though. They say they’ll reward us if we find their whereabouts. Yet the only clue is that the woman was seriously injured with a large arrow wound in her abdomen and thighs,” man C said.

“Yea, without the help of a Martial Fighter with a strong healing technique, it can’t easily be healed. Even then, she could be anywhere. Alright brothers, since we are all done, I think it’s time. Where should we go today? I have been saving for a month and I can finally see those beauties!” man D said. 

Hearing them talk, Qian Yu sighed in relief as he now felt secured that Sun Hong would be fine. Her wound was gone already and without her needing to carry out that large sword that attracted too much attention, she would be pretty safe even without the help of the artifact that could change her appearance.

Qian Yu then turned his attention to some merchants. 

“Brother Hu, how much money did you save this time haha,” a drunk merchant said as he chugged down his liquor. 

“Aiyah brother Su, you are bringing up bad memories. I spent a whole 6 months saving all my earnings and even with 50 spirit stones, I wasn’t able to buy an artifact or slave. All those top tier beauties. My heart still aches when I remember it,” the drunk merchant B started crying.

“Hahaha, I already told you. I had to save for a whole year to actually get one of the items there. Ahh, that rare grade artifact has saved me a couple times over the years,” merchant A replied.

‘Nothing with even 50 spirit stones!’ Qian Yu was shocked. Previously, he only had about 10 spirit stones before entering. Now, he was a lot richer as Sun Hong had given him another 10 spirit stones when he told her his plan for cultivating without her. 

Natural selection led to males looking for as many partners as possible to ensure that their blood would be passed on while females sought out the best male partner to increase the fitness and survivability of their offspring. This resulted in a patriarchal society that was created since the beginning of human civilization.

As such, he knew that it wouldn’t shock Sun Hong too much when he discussed his previous plan regarding yin qi. 

“That idea is fine,” Sun Hong wasn’t opposed to it.

“However… Qian Yu, you can be the savior for her in a way… ahem, just… be yourself,” Sun Hong said.

“I-I know. If she doesn’t agree it’s fine. I’ll look for other methods,” Qian Yu knew what she was referring to.

Now, while Qian Yu could go to a regular auction, the girls there were weaker than him in cultivation and it wouldn’t be as effective if he cultivated with them. The higher the cultivation, the better. ‘Looks like I’ll wait for this so-called auction,’ Qian Yu thought to himself as he heard them talk. 

Finishing eating, he returned to the hotel as he finally made up his plan. It was pretty easy to hear more information about the auction the merchants were talking about. It was none other than the annual auction that occurred in the Soba Capital during the Soba Festival that celebrated the anniversary of the country’s beginning. Looking around, he saw a few of the common folk preparing for the festival that would start in a month. 

Entering the room in the hotel, Qian Yu took out all of his stuff in his spatial ring. ‘From the rewards of the maze, I have 3 sky ranked cultivation techniques, 2 heaven ranked cultivation techniques, 1 rare grade artifact, and 1 legendary ranked cultivation technique. As for the rest of the rewards, there are some pills of an unknown grade’ Qian Yu took a look at everything he had. ‘Now how much can I sell a sky ranked cultivation technique for? More importantly, how can I sell them?’ Qian Yu thought. 

However, there was an issue in that all of the sky ranked cultivation techniques were the same. If he was to carelessly sell these, his identity could easily get leaked if they cross examined it with those from the regular sects. After checking with Sun Hong, the only reward that was different besides the artifacts were the legendary grade cultivation techniques.

Speaking of which, Qian Yu looked at the legendary grade cultivation technique. At the beginning, he was excited as he wondered what it could be but he was soon disappointed. It wasn’t because it was weak or anything, but rather the fact that he couldn’t use it. Rather, the cultivation technique was made to awaken the potential of those with bloodlines or in other words, hybrid descendants of a strong spiritual beast and a human. The strongest and rarest spiritual beasts would be able to gain a human form after they matured and reached a certain degree of strength. 

He had tried reciting the introduction part of the scripture in the cultivation technique but he didn’t feel any resonance with it so he could only assume he didn’t have any special bloodline. Of course, he didn’t activate the scroll with his qi otherwise it would disintegrate and the whole entire scriptures would enter his consciousness and be a complete waste. In a way, it worked like an artifact of some sort.

‘So much for a seer,’ Qian Yu sighed.

Staring at the ceiling, Qian Yu laid on the bed as he thought of a way to sell off the sky ranked cultivation techniques.

Author’s Note: If some of yall are annoyed and wondering why they are separating for a “long time” (2 months isn’t long), then I will list some more issues with them staying together. Firstly, if they stay together, MC will just get free cultivation levels easily. It also hinders any other plot development since Sun Hong is just too strong and this volume is important in setting up a crap ton of stuff in the future volumes.

Anyways, hope everyone else enjoyed this arc regarding the inheritance realm and Sun Hong.