Pain. That was all Tang Wulin could comprehend at the moment, his flesh bubbling from a searing heat, blood vessels bulging from his skin. But it was insignificant compared to what he had endured in previous seal breakings. The radiant energy of the Golden Dragon King poured into his body, rushing quicker and quicker, to the point of bursting. Yet the pressure began to decrease, his body gobbling up the energy and repurposing it into his own strength.

  A sense of liberation and excitement washed over him, the cells of his body singing, brimming with energy. They resonated with the crescendoing draconic roar within him……

  The parts of his body hidden from his view took on a pattern of golden veins. They were mostly concentrated on his back, shining resplendently so.

  Tang Wulin’s aura of might rose to the sky, gusts kicking up around him. His blood essence raged through his meridian channels like a roaring river.

  Golden scales manifested on his forehead. They gradually turned translucent, sparkling crystals that encrusted his skin. Scales spread across his right arm, shoulder, and the right-side of his torso. Then they spread further. Empowered by the energy of the Golden Dragon King, they encroached up his neck, claiming it as their domain. Then they turned their sights to the unscaled side of his torso and shoulder. They stopped short of covering his left arm.

  The golden veins across his body flared brighter than ever, tracing deeper and wider into his skin. The cry of his blood essence. A golden soul ring emerged from his body, spinning around him. Then a second emerged. A faint trim of white at its edges, this new ring bled pure gold an instant later.

  The cracking and popping of bones. Tang Wulin now stood a few centimeters taller.

  Blood essence and soul power mixed within him, the soul power growing purer under the blood essence’s influence, strengthening his body further. Unknown to Tang Wulin, his blood essence had always influenced his soul power, but at this particular moment it was to a higher degree. Rather than directly increasing his soul power, his blood essence continuously refined and compressed it.

  The body was a vessel in which its volume and the strength of its meridian channels and itself were closely entwined. But there were limits to how large it could grow, even for a Titled Douluo. In order to maximize their strength, they compressed their soul power so that a denser, more potent form of the energy filled them. Usually, only Soul Kings and stronger compressed their soul power, since that was when the limits of the human body began revealing themselves. Tang Wulin, however, had long since started compressing and refining his soul power thanks to his blood essence. This was the true cause of his slow cultivation speed, and were it not for this, he wouldn’t have been able to stand on the level as Yuanen Yehui.

  The value of compressed soul power became more apparent with strength.

  Wrapped in a blanket of warmth, Tang Wulin submerged into the depths of his mind, throwing himself fully into meditation. His soul power and blood essence resonated, a gentle thrum to the energies as his scales twinkled in the darkness of the room. Now was the time to consolidate the power he gained from the fourth seal into his own.

  ☀

  When the medicinal aroma finally faded from the air, Yuanen Yehui opened her eyes. A day had passed. The sun shone brightly in the morning sky.

  She stood up and stretched her back. Astonishment colored her face. She felt like a new person. She had drawn out all the impurities in her body, a sticky layer of a mucus-like substance on her skin. It felt disgusting, but the fact that she had become stronger from this cleansing was a comforting thought……

  She did, however, face a problem. Because of her deal with Tang Wulin, she was currently in the middle of guarding him and couldn’t leave to wash herself! But to continue on in such a dirty state was unthinkable. She took a tentative sniff of her body. And nearly choked.

  She scanned the area, ears perking up. Sure enough, there was no one else to be found in the working students dormitory. She directed her gaze back to Tang Wulin’s door, heard his deep and steady breaths, and decided he wouldn’t wake up anytime soon. It would be fine for her to wash off in the courtyard.

  Yuanen Yehui always kept her promises. Since she agreed to guard Tang Wulin, she would do so until the end. She had benefited from the leaked medicinal aroma too, so she couldn’t just leave, especially with her righteous heart.

  She drew up two buckets of water, grabbed a set of clean clothes, and walked back to the courtyard to wash herself. She could handle the cold water. Checking once more that Tang Wulin was deep in his meditations and assured that he would stay that way, she threw her dirty clothes off to the side, emptying a bucket over herself.

  A smile graced her lips as soon as the water met her skin. She felt refreshed with the muck off her body. Her wet skin glistened under the sunlight, a hint of pink to it, a shine to it that wasn’t there before.

  Just what is Tang Wulin up to? His medicine is so potent!

  Yuanen Yehui was without a doubt quite lucky. Because Tang Wulin already had a strong body and only had three soul rings, he couldn’t absorb the full extent of the spirit items’ medical potency. For that reason, Yuanen Yehui was able to use the energies that had leaked. Furthermore, if she hadn’t been there guarding him, the energies leaking out of his pores would have gone to waste. Fortune allowed her to absorb a third of that medical potency.

  Another cause for the medicinal energy leakage was that Tang Wulin’s body had already been full to the brim of the energy of heavenly treasures, courtesy of Zhen Hua’s beneficial foods.

  Yuanen Yehui looked down at her rosy skin, astonished. Before this event, her figure had been slender yet still possessing the curves and charm of one stepping into the sphere of womanhood. Now this coupled with her newly clear complexion, her delicate and pink skin. She had grown even more beautiful.

  She stretched her body, which glistened under the sun. A radiant aura around her, she could have been a goddess for all the world knew.

  She ran her fingers through her hair, tugging past the odd tangle and knot, the cool droplets still running down her skin and leaving tracks wherever they went. Satisfied, she moved to turn around and dressed when all of a sudden her ears caught a muted click. The sound stood out among the quiet ambient noises of nature. She hastily grabbed her clothes and threw on her jacket. A modicum of decency restored, she directed her glare to the bushes behind bushes. There were a few splatters of blood there, an oddity in the peaceful courtyard.

  With a shout, she leaped toward the bush, her body already swelling with size and power as she summoned her Titan Giant Ape martial soul.

  Someone yelped in the bushes. “No! Don’t hurt me! I just got here! I didn’t do it on purpose!” A scream filled the air as the figure in the bushes dashed out and away with ghostly steps.

  Yuanen Yehui threw a punch at the peeping tom, sending in their way a blast of air powerful enough to obliterate a boulder.

  They were as slippery as an eel, figure a blur as they ran through the courtyard. In the end, Yuanen Yehui didn’t land a single shot.

  And then she recognized who it was. “You bastard! I’m going to kill you!” Xie Xie.

  The question of why it was always him peeping on her ran through her mind the first second her brain had put two and two together. Then her fury caught up and before she knew it, she vowed to deliver her wrath.