“Take yours off too, Xuan Xi.” SigrdrÃfa’s voice was soft.
“Wearing wet clothes will make your cold worse.”
Hearing this, Xuan Xi only then remembered she was still wearing her soaked clothes.
She took off her outer robe and laid it beside Sigr’s.
The two of them sat by the fire, drying off, with less than a meter between them.
The flames danced between them, casting flickering light and shadow across the cave.
Xuan Xi stared at the fire for a long while, then suddenly spoke words that seemed to come out of nowhere.
“Do you know, Sige? They say there’s a dual cultivation technique in the East that can quickly restore two people’s vitality and spiritual energy.”
SigrdrÃfa was wringing water from her hair at that moment.
Hearing this, her movements stopped.
Her eyes peered out from behind her hair strands, fixed intently on Xuan Xi, as if someone had pressed her pause button.
The long locks slipped from her fingers and fell against her shoulders.
“Dual cultivation?” She repeated the phrase, her tone lifting slightly, as if anticipating something.
“Mhm, dual cultivation. It’s when two people sit together, palms facing each other, connecting their spiritual energy to form a loop—similar to when we were practicing spells earlier. As the two energies circulate through the loop, each cycle not only carries away impurities from the other’s body, but also sends back purified spiritual energy.”
Xuan Xi gathered her shirt collar.
“You expended too much today, so your spiritual energy must have suffered considerable loss. Let me use my water spiritual energy to moisturize and nourish you—the results should be good.”
SigrdrÃfa said nothing, because all she had heard were the words “dual cultivation” and “moisturize and nourish.”
She looked at Xuan Xi, her gaze drifting to her rosy lips, then lower, to her open collar, and her jade-white neck.
She swallowed hard.
From the tips of her ears to her earlobes, an inexplicable flush spread across her skin, as if licked by the flames.
“This dual cultivation you mentioned.” Her voice was lower than usual, carrying a hint of anticipation, “Is it the kind where you have to take off your clothes?”
Xuan Xi was taken aback.
“Take off clothes? There’s no need to take off clothes—why would we need to undress for meditation?”
SigrdrÃfa’s expression turned very subtle in that instant.
She lowered her head—apparently she had been overthinking things (dammit, why did she feel a little disappointed).
She remained silent for a long time.
Xuan Xi thought she didn’t want to dual cultivate with her, and was about to say, “If you don’t want to, forget it.”
Then she heard SigrdrÃfa take a breath.
“Alright, let’s do it.” Her voice carried a hint of embarrassment.
Xuan Xi didn’t think much of it.
She shifted from beside the fire and sat cross-legged across from Sige, resting her hands on her knees, palms facing up.
“Come on, give me your hands.”
SigrdrÃfa extended her hands.
Her slender fingers were trembling slightly.
The moment her fingertips touched Xuan Xi’s palm, they even flinched back.
Seeing this, Xuan Xi directly grasped her hands.
Their palms pressed tightly together—Xuan Xi’s palm skin was warm, while SigrdrÃfa’s palm still carried a bit of chill from the rain.
“Close your eyes and feel my guidance.” Xuan Xi said.
SigrdrÃfa obediently closed her eyes.
Her breathing was still unsteady, her chest rising and falling more noticeably than usual.
As Xuan Xi’s calming presence settled over her, Sigr’s fingertips stopped trembling, though her thumb still occasionally brushed gently against the back of Xuan Xi’s hand.
Xuan Xi pulled her attention inward, sinking into her own body.
She guided her water spiritual energy from her dantian, traveling up through her meridians, passing through her chest, flowing from the channels of her right arm toward her palm.
The spiritual energy gathered at her palm, passed through her skin, and crossed over from her palm into SigrdrÃfa’s.
SigrdrÃfa’s body trembled slightly.
She could feel a force surging in through her palm, spreading up her arm, passing through her upper arm and shoulder, flowing into her chest.
That force was completely different from her lightning spiritual energy—hers was fierce, like a runaway wild horse, while Xuan Xi’s water spiritual energy was soft, like thawing spring water.
When the two forces met inside her body, there was neither conflict nor rejection.
The water wrapped around the lightning, flowing slowly through the meridians.
Xuan Xi’s experience, on the other hand, was far worse.
When Sige’s spiritual energy surged over, it was like a beast that had been caged for a long time—the moment it broke free, it rampaged in every direction.
That spiritual energy charged recklessly through her body, slamming into her meridians.
To Xuan Xi, it felt like someone had struck her with a blunt blow.
Her brows knitted tightly.
SigrdrÃfa’s spiritual energy was too fierce—it refused to cooperate with Xuan Xi’s guidance, wouldn’t follow the meridians, insisting on carving its own path.
It surged in through Xuan Xi’s palm, but once it reached her wrist, it refused to go further, spinning around in circles, churning Xuan Xi’s meridians into chaos.
Xuan Xi tried to guide it, but the moment her water spiritual energy wrapped around it, that lightning spiritual energy bounced it away.
“You’re too tense.” Xuan Xi said.
SigrdrÃfa opened her eyes and asked, “What?”
“Your spiritual energy—it’s too tense.” Xuan Xi didn’t open her eyes.
“Relax a little. Let it flow on its own. Don’t try to force it under control.”
SigrdrÃfa didn’t argue.
She simply closed her eyes.
Adjusting her mindset, the lightning spiritual energy, now free from restraint, stopped rampaging around and obediently settled at Xuan Xi’s wrist.
Xuan Xi’s water spiritual energy slowly approached, gradually enveloping the lightning energy.
Following Xuan Xi’s guidance, it flowed along the meridians toward every limb and corner of the body.
By the time it had traveled through Xuan Xi’s entire right arm, that lightning spiritual energy had also scraped off a layer of impurities from her meridians—the ones that couldn’t normally be washed away—wrapping around them and carrying them toward her dantian, ultimately being expelled from the body.
After who knew how many cycles, SigrdrÃfa’s lightning spiritual energy was no longer as fierce as it had been at the start.
Its passage through Xuan Xi’s meridians had grown far more docile, like a beast that Xuan Xi had tamed, sheathing its fangs.
Xuan Xi and Sige’s breathing gradually synchronized—the rhythm of inhale and exhale became exactly the same.
Firelight cast across both their faces.
The cave was so quiet that only the crackling of burning wood and their even breaths remained.
A night passed.
The firelight gradually dimmed, the campfire reduced to ashes.
The rain outside the cave had stopped at some point.
The dark clouds dispersed, and sunlight fell upon the two of them.
Xuan Xi opened her eyes.
The Destiny Mark on her face shimmered with a faint golden glow in the morning light.
She felt something different within her body—spiritual energy now flowed through her meridians twice as fast, and even the width of her meridians had expanded considerably.
She looked down at her hands.
The markings on her palms were much clearer than they had been yesterday when her spiritual energy was depleted.
On the surface lay a thin layer of grayish-white unidentified matter—these were impurities expelled from her body.
After a full night, they had condensed into a fine film on her skin.
She scraped it lightly with her fingernail, and the grayish-white powder fell away with a soft rustle.