Dual Cultivation System: My Cultivation Was Crippled, So I Rely on Intimacy to Level Up

Chapter 215: Dispersing Cultivation to Rebuild! Raising a Living Cheat Code for My Wife!

The Spirit Boat sliced through the firmament, descending slowly outside Shangqing City.

Zhou Kai did not delay. After bidding farewell to Chen Ziyi and Shen Hanyi, his figure blurred, transforming into a streak of shadow as he shot straight toward the Asking Star Sect.

Inside the Sect, the atmosphere was thriving.

Zhou Kai’s return injected a spine of steel into the entire organization. He Xinrou, accompanied by a young girl in a pale green dress with delicate features, had been waiting respectfully for some time. The girl was her Personal Disciple, Qiu Yue.

“Senior!” He Xinrou’s eyes shimmered, holding the respectful deference of a subordinate mixed with the suppressed joy of a long-awaited reunion.

Zhou Kai nodded slightly. He casually tossed the Spirit Beast Bag containing the Earthfire Ant eggs to her.

“Over a hundred carefully selected Earthfire Ant eggs. All are High Grade with pure bloodlines. Cultivate them well; they will be a major asset to the Sect in the future.”

He Xinrou caught the bag. Her Divine Sense probed inside, and she gasped, startled by the vigorous life force teeming within. She quickly and solemnly accepted the task.

Zhou Kai’s gaze swept over her, pulling up her interface.

[System Message]

Target: He Xinrou

Cultivation: Qi Condensation Ninth Layer (587/2100)

Spirit Root: Water (High Grade 26/900)

“Not bad.” Zhou Kai was satisfied.

Over the past four years, he had slowly elevated He Xinrou’s Water Spirit Root to High Grade. Her current progress was within his calculations.

He had returned primarily to make final preparations for his own Golden Core breakthrough, but also to max out her Comprehension and push her into Foundation Establishment.

Zhou Kai had analyzed the situation clearly. Shangqing City was, ultimately, a resource-poor backwater. He was not a man who enjoyed “turtling” in safety. He intended to return to Calamity Abyss Valley—to fight, to compete, to conquer!

With a thought, 1,500 Comprehension Points vanished from his System Panel.

“Xinrou, your foundation is stable. You may begin preparations for Foundation Establishment.” Zhou Kai’s voice brooked no argument.

“Senior, this Junior has not yet reached Qi Condensation Perfection. To attempt a breakthrough so rashly, I fear…” He Xinrou instinctively pushed back. Foundation Establishment was the first great filter on the path of Cultivation; it allowed for no negligence.

Zhou Kai didn’t bother explaining. In his domain, there was no “I fear.”

He retrieved four Foundation Establishment Pills from his Storage Bag and pressed them into her hand.

“If I say you are ready, you are ready. Enter Secluded Cultivation within the next few days. Take one yourself. Give the other three to the Wang sisters and Qiu Yue.”

He had bestowed a significant amount of Creation Qi upon the Wang sisters, improving their aptitude. One was at the Eighth Layer, the other at the Seventh. Though they weren’t indexed by his System, they were his women. Two pills were a small price to pay. Whether they succeeded would depend on their own Fated Chance.

Zhou Kai took He Xinrou’s warm hand, his voice softening. “Rest assured. You are the Headmaster of the Asking Star Sect, my right arm. I will not let you fail. Message me when you are ready to break through; I will personally act as your Dharma Protector.”

Feeling the warmth of his palm and the undeniable dominance in his tone, the last shred of doubt in He Xinrou’s heart evaporated, replaced by a sweet, settling peace.

Having settled He Xinrou, Zhou Kai’s gaze shifted to Qiu Yue, who stood nearby, head lowered and fidgeting awkwardly.

“Qiu Yue.”

At the sound of her name, the girl’s delicate frame trembled. She twisted the hem of her dress nervously, slowly lifting her head.

Zhou Kai studied her. He reached out, grasping her wrist. His eyebrows raised slightly.

Strange.

The spiritual power in this girl’s body was thin—her cultivation was indeed only at the Qi Condensation Second Layer. However, the Spirit Qi in her Dantian did not flow with the gentle fluidity of a normal cultivator. Instead, it possessed an extremely faint, yet incredibly sharp, stagnant quality.

“Your Master claims you are naturally gifted. Yet you began cultivating at thirteen, and five years later, you are still stuck at the Second Layer. Why?”

Qiu Yue stammered, “Replying to Senior Zhou… I… my speed of absorbing Spirit Qi matches a Middle Grade Spirit Root, but… once it enters my body, it feels like…”

Terrified that Zhou Kai would deem Qiu Yue useless and cut off her resources, He Xinrou interrupted, taking the blame upon herself.

“Senior, it is because the child lacks diligence! She can never sit still. She spends her days waving tree branches around in the air, refusing to settle down for proper meditation!”

Playing? Lack of diligence?

Spirit Qi that resists standard refinement methods… plus an unconscious habit of swinging sticks…

This wasn’t laziness.

Regardless of the anomaly, the System would reveal all.

Zhou Kai looked the girl up and down. At eighteen, she was like a green apple—unripe but promising. Her figure was beginning to curve, her eyes holding a mix of innocence and shyness untouched by the grim realities of the world.

“Qiu Yue, you are eighteen.”

Zhou Kai took a step forward, invading her personal space. He reached out, lifting her chin with a finger.

“From this moment on, you follow me.”

He Xinrou’s mind buzzed. A sour wave of jealousy washed over her heart.

She had planned to offer Qiu Yue to Zhou Kai eventually—she had mentally prepared for it. But now that the moment was here, she realized she wasn’t nearly as magnanimous as she had pretended to be.

But the emotion lasted only a second before she forcibly crushed it.

She took Qiu Yue’s hand, her voice gentle. “Qiu Yue, listen to Senior’s arrangement. This is your Fated Chance.”

Qiu Yue flushed crimson, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.

Forced to look up into eyes as deep as the starry void, she found no resistance in her soul. Instead, deep down… there was a faint, trembling anticipation.

Night fell. In the quiet room, red candles flickered.

It was a night of tenderness, requiring no further elaboration.

Under the dual nourishment of Zhou Kai’s boundless Creation Qi and the supreme method of the Universe Qi Unification Return to Truth Mysterious Canon, the bottleneck damming Qiu Yue’s meridians was shattered like rotten wood.

Qi Condensation Third Layer!

Qi Condensation Fourth Layer!

She broke through two realms consecutively, charging straight into the mid-stage of Qi Condensation!

Zhou Kai felt refreshed. He sank his consciousness into the System, and the long-awaited panel finally unfurled.

[System Message]

Name: Sun Qingli (Qiu Yue)

Cultivation: Qi Condensation Fourth Layer (277/750)

Spirit Root: Wood (Middle Grade 176/300)

Comprehension: 1100

Affection: 100 (Unwavering)

Point Type: Sword Essence

Points Provided: 10

“Sun Qingli? So, that is your true name.”

Zhou Kai looked at the girl still basking in the afterglow in his arms, and a wave of wild ecstasy washed over him.

First, the girl he had raised was utterly devoted—her Affection was instantly maxed out at “Unwavering.”

But the true prize was the Point Type: Sword Essence!

It’s actually Sword Essence!

No wonder! No wonder she only reached the Second Layer in five years using standard breathing techniques!

It was like forcing a True Dragon to cluck like a chicken, or using a divine sword to plow a muddy field. It was completely counter-intuitive, wasting half the effort for zero result!

Sun Qingli was a natural-born Sword Cultivator!

And this… this was a cheat code tailor-made for Shen Hanyi!

Zhou Kai was a dual cultivator of Body and Magic. Sword Essence points were useless to him; he had no intention of walking the Sword Path.

But for Shen Hanyi, a born Sword Embryo, these points were priceless treasures!

A bold, calculating plan instantly formed in Zhou Kai’s mind.

Nurture. I must nurture her at any cost.

“What was your birth name?” Zhou Kai asked.

“Sun Qingli, Senior,” the girl whispered, her voice as faint as a mosquito’s hum. “Qiu Yue was the name Master gave me when she adopted me.”

“From today onward, you will disperse your cultivation and rebuild from scratch,” Zhou Kai said, his tone leaving no room for negotiation.

“Ah?” Sun Qingli went pale with shock.

Zhou Kai pinched her cheek, smiling. “Do not fear. I am not crippling you. I am allowing you to switch your Great Dao. You are going to become a Sword Cultivator. You were born to hold a sword; the path you walked before was an error.”

He already had the roadmap in his head.

First, Awaken her constitution! Then, crank her Comprehension straight past 2000!

Step two: Frequent ‘exchanges.’ Use my Creation Qi and the power of the Mysterious Canon to power-level her through the bottlenecks, rushing her to the Spirit Shaping stage!

As long as she Awakened, the Sword Essence points he generated from her would multiply fivefold! He could then funnel all those points directly into Shen Hanyi.

Thinking of this, Zhou Kai could almost visualize the terrifying speed at which Shen Hanyi’s Sword Dao would skyrocket.

However, this meant his original plan to attempt the Golden Core breakthrough within three months would have to be delayed. He would need to spend at least half a year paving the road for Sun Qingli.

Is it worth it?

Zhou Kai looked down at the dependent, trusting girl in his arms, then thought of his aloof, peerless Dao Companion, Shen Hanyi. The smile on his lips deepened.

Worth it.

“I am not short on time,” Zhou Kai thought, his gaze firming. “Let Hanyi’s combat power ascend another tier first. That is the safest way to suppress Li Youci!”

“The debt of the Spirit Platform Fuel Fire Talisman… is due.”

[Author’s Note] (I feel the slice-of-life sections are a bit dragging. Golden Core is coming, really soon, even I’m getting impatient… As a true newbie with 9 months in the industry, this book has exceeded my expectations. Writing up to this point, I wonder: Should the protagonist have stayed a Loose Cultivator early on? Would it have been better to join a Sect only at late Foundation Establishment? Should daily life be woven into side quests, and side quests into the main plot? Should the heroines be introduced one by one instead of all at once?)