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

Chapter 253: What a Huge Black Pot, Long Yufeng Is Carrying It Firmly!

Outside the stone hall.

After listening to Zhou Kai’s tactical breakdown, Shen Hanyi’s gaze sharpened, his eyes cutting into him like physical blades. “Remember the parameters. One strike. Regardless of success or failure, we break contact immediately.”

Zhou Kai nodded. “Relax, Hanyi. The ambient Divine Sense suppression in this valley is suffocating. Even if Dong Cheng is sitting at the absolute peak of late-stage Golden Core, there is mathematically zero chance he detects a localized mental spike from us.”

Right on cue, the golden cage resting near their feet rattled violently. The captured mid-stage demon slammed its fists against the bars, letting out a deafening, ear-piercing shriek.

Zhou Kai frowned, his annoyance spiking. “Shut up.”

He pinched two silencing talismans from his robes and flicked his wrist. The paper slips blurred into two streaks of faint light, slapping perfectly onto the golden bars.

The talismans flared briefly. The demon’s shrill howling was instantly muted, completely cut off from the physical acoustics of the room.

Zhou Kai scooped the cage into his Storage Bag and turned back to Shen Hanyi. “Hanyi, you’re free to explore the surrounding tunnels for loose loot, or you can head up to the surface and wait for extraction.”

Shen Hanyi remained perfectly still, his arms wrapped around his sheathed sword. His gaze drifted up toward the ceiling. “Negative. I will hold this position and wait for your return.”

Zhou Kai didn’t argue. He exchanged a brief, highly coordinated look with Li Youci.

The solid bedrock wall beside them silently liquefied, shifting into a swirling vortex of quicksand. Without moving a muscle, the two of them stepped into the flow. The stone swallowed them whole, launching them upward through the planet’s crust at blinding speed.

…

Tons of earth and stone blurred past them in a dizzying reverse waterfall. A blinding flash of gray light exploded in their vision as they breached the surface.

The instant they cleared the dirt, the auras of Zhou Kai, Li Youci, and her Ghost Form flatlined. They deployed extreme concealment protocols, instantly blending their bio-signatures into the ambient radiation of the mountain. To any scanning Divine Sense, they registered as nothing more than inert, stubborn rocks.

Towering directly in front of them was a colossal, pitch-black pillar. It was so impossibly massive it looked like a structural spine designed to physically hold up the sky. It was the Demon Suppression Platform.

Zhou Kai narrowed his eyes, analyzing the structure. The material density, the texture, the specific frequency of the ambient radiation… it was practically identical to the massive black stele they had encountered back in the Wangchuan Secret Realm.

A sudden, electrifying realization struck him.

The Dharma Treasure in Wangchuan literally evolved into an entire river system. Could the legendary Pure World Lamp be physically housed inside this pillar?

High above them, the sky was a chaotic warzone.

Brilliant flashes of multicolored spiritual light detonated across the clouds. Razor-sharp sword energy violently collided with the concussive force of heavy Dharma Treasures, sending rolling shockwaves of thunder echoing across the valley.

The absolute elite prodigies of the younger generation—representing Calamity Abyss Valley, Jade Flower Palace, Heavenly Spring Sect, Purple Star Gate, and Jade Void Gate—were currently locked in a massive, multi-front dogfight, aggressively jockeying for control over the absolute center of the Demon Suppression Platform’s airspace.

The spells being thrown around were apocalyptic, but the targeting was deliberate. No one was aiming for vital organs. This was a high-stakes flex of dominance, not a bloodbath.

Zhou Kai pushed Qi into his eyes, his vision piercing the chaos to isolate specific engagements.

He spotted Yang Ling locked in a high-speed duel with Li Qiwen.

Yang Ling’s primary Dharma Treasure was an absolute nightmare—a microscopic, three-inch needle. It zipped through the air like teleporting lightning, its attack vectors completely unpredictable and incredibly vicious.

Dharma Treasures come in a million different shapes, Zhou Kai noted with professional appreciation. But maintaining lethal kinetic output in a chassis that small requires insane compression. His artifact-forging fundamentals are top-tier.

On the far edge of the airspace, two figures were violently separating themselves from the main furball. The collateral damage from their clash was escalating rapidly; they had clearly crossed the line from a friendly spar to genuine, burning hostility.

Long Yufeng, the Holy Son of the Heavenly Spring Sect, let out a booming, arrogant laugh. His combat style was explosive and heavily telegraphed, radiating an oppressive, tyrannical confidence.

His opponent was Dong Cheng, the Holy Son of the Jade Flower Palace. Dong Cheng’s expression was a mask of cold, absolute focus. His martial forms were flawless, his defense as impenetrable as a mountain fortress.

Both men were hovering at the late-stage of Golden Core. They were dumping massive amounts of Qi into their arsenals, but they were perfectly deadlocked.

The corner of Zhou Kai’s mouth curled into a dark, highly predatory smile. He opened a telepathic channel to Li Youci. Youci. Look at that. Someone just brought us a pillow right when we were getting sleepy.

BOOM!

A massive localized detonation rocked the sky. Dong Cheng and Long Yufeng were simultaneously blasted backward by the sheer kinetic rebound of their clashing Qi.

Long Yufeng dug his heels into the air, arresting his momentum. He violently dispersed the residual spiritual light clinging to his robes and sneered. “Dong Cheng, stop stalling! We’re perfectly matched. We could trade blows for three days and still be staring at each other. You want to settle this? One final exchange. Winner takes all.”

Dong Cheng’s face remained completely impassive. “I accept those terms.”

An unspoken truce rippled across the battlefield. The chaotic, multicolored lightshow of a dozen active Dharma Treasures instantly retracted as the surrounding combatants backed off, giving the two Holy Sons the floor.

The sky cleared, leaving only a glowing bamboo scroll and a radiant, glazed pearl confronting each other in the void.

In front of Long Yufeng, the bamboo scroll slowly unspooled. The individual strips detached from the binding, fanning out to form a defensive halo around his body.

Every single strip of bamboo was translucent and crystalline, bleeding a terrifying, localized frost that physically froze the ambient moisture in the air into falling snow.

“My scroll was forged from the core of a millennium Cold Crystal Bamboo,” Long Yufeng declared, his voice echoing with absolute arrogance. “It is entirely immune to any thermal attack on this planet!”

Dong Cheng didn’t bat an eye. He slowly raised his hand, the glazed pearl hovering an inch above his palm.

The pearl flared. The airspace surrounding Dong Cheng violently warped, distorting like a mirage over boiling asphalt. An invisible, apocalyptic wave of thermal radiation instantly flash-fried the atmosphere.

Three Thousand Brilliant Flames!

The fire was completely colorless and lacked any physical mass. But the second it made contact with a target, it bypassed physical armor entirely, violently incinerating the victim’s soul and internal organs from the inside out. It was a notoriously overbearing, unblockable nightmare of a weapon.

“Immunity is a bold claim,” Dong Cheng said softly. “Let’s test it.”

Long Yufeng let out a primal roar. The floating bamboo strips instantly slammed together, fusing into a massive, crystal-clear torrent of ice that tore across the sky, barreling straight toward Dong Cheng’s chest.

Dong Cheng casually flipped his wrist, driving the pearl forward. The invisible, formless Brilliant Flames erupted like a ruptured dam, crashing headlong into the incoming glacier.

The absolute zero cold and the apocalyptic heat were separated by less than three feet. A catastrophic thermal detonation was a microsecond away!

Now. Three eerie, overlapping cicada cries—completely silent to the physical ear—violently pierced Dong Cheng’s Consciousness Sea.

Dong Cheng’s mind violently seized. It felt as though a rusted scalpel had just been dragged across his soul. The psychic spike didn’t inflict structural damage, but the sudden, excruciating feedback severed his neural link to the Three Thousand Brilliant Flames for a fraction of a millisecond!

That microscopic stutter in his Qi circulation was fatal.

The Brilliant Flames instantly lost their structural cohesion, their thermal output plummeting. The charging ice torrent brutally tore a gaping hole straight through the weakened fire wall!

“Shit!”

Dong Cheng’s eyes widened in sheer panic. He frantically abandoned his offensive posture, his left hand blurring as he tried to throw up a defensive seal.

He was too slow. The glacier hit his chest.

Pfft!

Dozens of razor-sharp Cold Crystal Bamboo strips slammed into him. His Body-Protecting Qi shattered like brittle glass.

A terrifying, absolute-zero chill violently invaded his Meridians, rocketing straight down into his Dantian Qi Sea!

Dong Cheng convulsed. He violently vomited a mouthful of blood that froze into dark red hail before it even began to fall.

He was blasted backward, the color draining from his face, replaced by the sickly, ashen gray of necrosis.

He dug deep, burning Qi to violently brake his momentum mid-air. He glared at Long Yufeng, his eyes burning with pure, unadulterated hatred.

“Long Yufeng… you shameless bastard!”

Long Yufeng, completely oblivious to the invisible psychic sniper attack that had just handed him the win, assumed his own overwhelming power had simply crushed Dong Cheng’s ultimate attack. He let out a booming sneer.

“Watch your mouth, Fellow Daoist Dong. You can eat garbage, but you shouldn’t speak it. I was always told the Holy Son of the Jade Flower Palace possessed an unbreakable Dao Heart. Turns out you’re just a sore loser.”

Down on the ground.

Zhou Kai watched the exchange with cold, highly analytical detachment. A slight frown touched his lips. Damn it.

His baseline foundation is too dense, Zhou Kai evaluated. And he’s wearing high-grade internal armor. He took the hit, but it wasn’t catastrophic. He’ll need a month or two of bed rest to heal the structural trauma, and maybe six months of active cultivation to fully purge the invasive cold crystals from his system.

He had genuinely hoped that perfectly timed psychic spike would result in an injury severe enough to force Dong Cheng into Secluded Cultivation for the next three to five years.

I underestimated the sheer durability of a top-tier Sect’s Holy Son.

They haven’t noticed the interference yet, but they will. We need to zero out our signatures and evacuate, Li Youci’s icy voice cut into his mind, her tactical instincts flawlessly reading the shifting variables.

Zhou Kai didn’t disagree. He grabbed her hand, prepping the quicksand escape vector.

But before they could sink into the earth, Dong Cheng’s furious roar shattered the sky.

“Long Yufeng! We are not done!”

High above, Dong Cheng violently forced his freezing Vitality back into circulation. The glazed pearl above his head rapidly expanded, swelling to the size of a grown man.

The artifact went critical. The previously invisible Three Thousand Brilliant Flames were pushed so hard they actually manifested physically. Massive, distorted rings of translucent fire violently expanded outward from the pearl, generating so much heat the surrounding space visibly buckled and warped.

Long Yufeng sneered, completely unimpressed. “You lost! Are you really that desperate to save face? Fine! If you won’t accept the loss, I’ll beat you until you beg!”

He snapped his fingers. Dozens of Cold Crystal Bamboo strips rocketed into the sky, violently swirling and interlocking until they formed a massive, roaring Ice Crystal Dragon. The construct dove directly at Dong Cheng!

The translucent rings of Brilliant Fire surged upward, crashing into the descending dragon!

But Dong Cheng’s internal systems were already compromised. The invasive cold crystals in his Dantian were actively sabotaging his Qi flow; his output was severely degraded.

The Ice Crystal Dragon completely ignored the thermal resistance. It slammed into the Brilliant Flames, actively freezing the invisible fire! The sheer absurdity of the physics—transparent fire flash-freezing into translucent, shattered glass—filled the sky with the horrifying sound of groaning, breaking crystal.

The Brilliant Flames collapsed entirely. The Ice Crystal Dragon blew through the wreckage, arriving directly in front of Dong Cheng.

Dong Cheng’s face turned a violent, suffocating purple. In an act of absolute desperation, he bit his tongue and violently spat a mouthful of his core Essence Blood directly onto the glazed pearl.

The artifact shrieked. A blinding flash of blood-light erupted, supercharging the Brilliant Flames just enough to barely halt the dragon’s advance.

Seeing Dong Cheng burning his own lifespan to stay in the fight, Long Yufeng’s smile turned vicious. He decided to twist the knife. “Fellow Daoist Dong. It seems your legendary Dao Heart is as brittle as glass.”

With a smug, completely arrogant grin, Long Yufeng pointed two fingers at the deadlocked dragon.

The Ice Dragon violently whipped its tail. Nine specific bamboo strips detached from the main chassis, bypassing the firewall entirely to strike directly at Dong Cheng’s Dantian!

Dong Cheng threw himself backward, his left hand a blur as he frantically pinched a high-grade spirit talisman and detonated it!

A massive, ethereal sword light materialized out of thin air, violently parrying the nine incoming spikes.

But the distraction was fatal. The main body of the Ice Crystal Dragon, completely unopposed, slammed squarely into Dong Cheng’s chest!

Dong Cheng was swatted from the sky like a fly. He plummeted toward the earth like a meteor.

Long Yufeng casually recalled his bamboo strips. He clasped his hands behind his back, hovering high in the sky like a descending god, watching coldly as Dong Cheng violently cratered into the ground below.

“The Jade Flower Palace,” Long Yufeng sneered, his voice echoing across the valley. “Pathetic.”

Down in the dirt, Zhou Kai opened the telepathic channel.

That final impact drove the cold crystals incredibly deep into his core. It’s going to trigger a massive, continuous thermal conflict with his innate fire-forging physique, Zhou Kai assessed, a cold smile finally reaching his eyes. That’s a permanent, structural hidden injury. He really is going to be in a coma for the next three years.