“Fairy sister, why’d you take all your clothes off? Ah... too white. It’s hurting my eyes...”

Inside a cave in Guiyuan Sect, Caelan Aubert covered his eyes with both hands, but it was useless. That blinding, snowy skin still slipped through the cracks of his fingers and crashed straight into his sight. Peaks rose full and proud, sharp and lofty.

He swore he wasn’t staring on purpose.

The woman’s figure was all curves and soft lines. The red dudou clinging to her body had already slipped down, barely hiding the deep, dangerous hollow before her chest. Her slim waist moved like a water snake, light and deadly, enough to hook a man’s soul in one sweep.

“What rotten luck. Of all people, I caught a fool.” The beauty let out a long breath, frustration and heat tangled in her voice. “But the aphrodisiac has already flared up. I have to purge the poison now... He’ll do.”

The blade in her hand flashed cold and bright.

One long leg pressed Caelan against the stone wall. The sharp knife moved back and forth at his waist, measuring him like a butcher choosing where to cut.

Her name was Vivienne Ashford, the reigning Empress of the Xianwu Empire. In Huangmu Region, she had been ambushed by five Nascent Soul Realm powerhouses and poisoned with the strongest aphrodisiac under heaven. The toxin was on the verge of erupting in full.

If she didn’t find a man and neutralize it at once, her body would burst apart and she would die.

Vivienne had fled hundreds of li. In the end, beneath the back mountain of Guiyuan Sect, she found the wounded Caelan.

Only then did she realize the boy was a fool.

His wit was no better than that of a four- or five-year-old child.

Could a fool like this even understand what lay between man and woman?

“Fairy sister, are you butchering a pig? I’m not a pig! Don’t kill me!” The moment Caelan saw the knife in her hand, his face went paper-white. He struggled hard, trying to break free.

“If you don’t want to die, stop moving!” Vivienne snapped coldly.

Her breathing had already turned ragged. Veins stood out along her neck. She was using all her strength to suppress the poison raging wild inside her body.

Puchi!

Before Caelan even understood what was happening, the knife in Vivienne’s hand plunged straight into his side. With one clean motion, she dug out both his kidneys and tossed them into the dirt beside them.

She didn’t pause.

The blade drove down again, this time into his chest, and she scooped out his heart as well.

Caelan stared blankly at the red heart twitching in Vivienne’s hand, then at the bloody hole in his own chest.

His whole body went numb.

In that instant, he felt hollowed out, emptied clean. His eyelids grew heavy.

Am I... dying?

Crack! Crack!

Just as despair swallowed him whole, deep inside his dantian, the golden eggshell that had sat there for years suddenly began to split apart, inch by inch.

A tuft of crimson flame burst out from within and floated inside his dantian, swaying softly. Each time it flickered, it grew stronger, brighter, fiercer.

At the same time, several streaks of flowing light shot out from the broken shell.

Those were the souls that had been sealed inside him.

In one breath, Caelan Aubert’s mind cleared.

He had recovered his reason.

“Damn! I was locked down by one damned egg for ten whole years? Nearly suffocated me to death. So that cursed golden egg only breaks if the heart gets stabbed, and then my soul comes back out? If I’d known that, I would’ve stabbed myself a few times long ago…”

Twenty years ago, when Caelan Aubert was doing archaeological research on Blue Star, he picked up a golden egg to study it. The thing suddenly melted into his hand. Then, in the next breath, he crossed over and became a baby in Xianwu Continent, later taken in as a disciple by the sect master of Guiyuan Sect.

From the time he was little, he showed terrifying talent.

At three months, he could speak.

At six months, he could run and had already cultivated spiritual sense.

At seven months, he could recite every cultivation method in the sect from start to finish without missing a word.

At three years old, Caelan Aubert had already become the youngest ninth-rank Qi Refining expert in the history of Guiyuan Sect.

At eight, he had stepped into Foundation Establishment, a monster among monsters, enough to shame all ages.

Just when he was ready to spread his wings and shake the world, the golden egg in his belly started making trouble.

That thing actually swallowed his three souls and seven spirits, then sealed them away.

All of Caelan Aubert’s freakish talent vanished in one stroke.

A peerless genius lost all his cultivation and dropped straight into ruin, turning into a “fool” with the mind of a four- or five-year-old child.

And that foolish state lasted ten years.

Only just now, when Vivienne Ashford drove a sharp blade through Caelan Aubert’s heart, she accidentally pierced that golden egg inside him as well. The egg cracked. His sealed soul came rushing back. His mind cleared. He finally woke up for real.

That strange little flame had rooted itself in his dantian. Every time it swayed, a fierce warmth spread through him, along with a surging tide of immortal power. Caelan Aubert could feel his cultivation climbing like floodwater breaking a dam.

First-rank Qi Refining.

Second-rank.

Third-rank…

All the way to ninth-rank Qi Refining.

Then Foundation Establishment, first rank…

In the blink of an eye, he had recovered the strength he possessed before he fell into madness.

But the problem was right in front of him.

His soul had awakened.

His monstrous talent had returned.

But without a heart, without kidneys, he would still die.

He had been a fool for ten years. He had not even had the chance to truly live, to truly enjoy anything—and now he was going to die just like that?

Caelan Aubert was still choking on that bitterness when Vivienne Ashford moved fast. She pulled a heart covered in writhing tendrils from her storage ring, along with two kidneys carrying an ancient, savage aura.

She did not hesitate for even a breath.

She shoved the two kidneys and the heart straight into Caelan Aubert’s wound.

In that instant, Caelan Aubert watched his wound close at a speed visible to the naked eye. The tendrils on the heart and kidneys shot out at once, linking tightly with the meridians all through his body.

It happened in no time at all.

By the time he fully realized what was going on, the wound on his chest had vanished completely, as if nothing had ever happened there.

A vast, ancient force flooded every inch of his body in a flash.

And when he looked at Vivienne Ashford again, his eyes had already turned burning hot.

He quickly noticed something else.

As the heart and kidneys fused with his body, even his temperament was beginning to shift.

The current Caelan Aubert wanted women with a fierce, almost violent hunger.

“This… what is this?” Caelan Aubert turned his head and looked at Vivienne Ashford, confusion written all over his face. “What did you put in me? Was that… some kind of surgery? You replaced my heart and kidneys?”

Vivienne Ashford’s whole face was flushed a deep, feverish red. Her breathing came harder and harder, hot enough to scorch the air.

“This Empress has been struck by the strongest aphrodisiac under heaven. I need you as the cure.” Her voice shook, proud one moment, ragged the next. “I was afraid you’d die from the strain, so I gave you a Qilin Kidney and a Demon Heart. Come…”

The next instant, Vivienne Ashford stopped caring about anything else. She shoved Caelan Aubert flat onto the ground.

“Beauty, you’re playing with fire…” Caelan muttered.

The soft weight in his arms nearly made his head buzz. And when Vivienne Ashford tore away that last bit of restraint from her body, the pale white phoenix that seemed ready to take wing burst into view, full of wild, ruinous allure. Caelan stared till his eyes went blank.

If he could grab hold of those twin phoenixes, maybe he could fly too.

“Then burn me to death with your passion… mm…” Vivienne Ashford gave a trembling cry. The drug raging inside her had smashed through the last of her control. She lowered her head and kissed him hard.

In that instant, Caelan felt like he’d turned into a horse, ridden hard and fast by the fairy before him.

It was thrilling, sure. But there was one damned problem.

His back was pressed against a sharp stone floor.

Was he really supposed to lie there and get plowed into the ground like a field?

No. Ten years he’d held it in. Now he was done being underneath.

A broken moan rang out.

Soon, sounds unfit for children echoed through the cave. On the woman’s face, pain and release tangled together, strange and raw.

After a long while, the crimson that had covered her face at last began to fade.

Was the aphrodisiac finally gone?

Since the effect had been achieved, Vivienne Ashford did not want one breath more of closeness with Caelan Aubert.

She kicked him clean off her body with one foot, swept her clothes over with a flick of her hand, and moved to put them back on.

Who was she?

She was Vivienne Ashford, the female Emperor who ruled the whole Xianwu Empire, sovereign over billions of lives. A mighty Empress of her age.

And yet her chastity had been taken by a fool like this.

If word got out, where would her face be then?

It was too cheap for this idiot. Far too cheap.

A vicious glint flashed through Vivienne Ashford’s eyes. Killing intent had already risen in her heart.

“Damn it! You used me and now you’re pulling up your pants and pretending not to know me?” Off to the side, Caelan Aubert rubbed the backside he’d slammed onto the cave floor and grumbled in complaint.

But his eyes were anything but idle.

Hiss!

What a body.

Caelan Aubert was still cursing that thought in his heart when his face changed.

Whoosh.

The little flame inside his dantian swelled again. Brighter than before by several times, fiercer too, like dry wood had just been thrown into it. Rings of warm current rolled out from around the Kindling Flame, spreading through his limbs and bones, nourishing his body—and at the same time flowing into Vivienne Ashford beside him.

“Hm?”

Vivienne Ashford had just meant to get dressed, but then her body stiffened.

She clearly felt a strange warm stream pouring out of Caelan Aubert and slipping straight into her body.

In the next breath, that warmth turned into vast spiritual power, dense and pure, rushing through her meridians and mending them at a speed that made her scalp prickle.

The past few days, she had fought several Deification Realm powerhouses head-on. That battle had shaken her Dao foundation badly. Under normal circumstances, if she wanted to heal that kind of damage, even with all the resources of the Xianwu Empire behind her, it would still take at least three years.

But now?

Just this short while—only this little bit of contact—and the cracks in her Dao foundation had already healed by seventy percent.

Seventy percent.

Vivienne Ashford stared at Caelan Aubert, shock plain on her face.

This foolish-looking boy... this dull-eyed little idiot...

He had such a use?

Her breathing grew heavier.

She needed more of that warm current.

More.

Vivienne Ashford bit her lower lip lightly. She forced herself not to look at Caelan Aubert’s face.

Just treat him like a tool.

That was all.

Without another word, she pressed him down again and swung herself back on top of him.

“Again?”

A sharp gleam flashed through Caelan Aubert’s eyes.

His hand shot out and caught her slim waist in one grip.

“Fairy sister,” he said, voice low, “let’s try another position.”