After a while, the door to the room opened. A shadow flickered past, leaving behind a faint, unpleasant smell wherever it went.
Shawn Steele had thought that after so many rounds of cleansing and marrow-washing, there wouldn’t be any impurities left in his body. To his surprise, breaking through to mid Foundation Establishment still forced out a ton of filth.
He raced all the way to the pool behind the mountain.
With a leap, he dove straight into the water with a splash.
After scrubbing for a full fifteen minutes, Shawn finally got himself clean. He climbed out, pulled a fresh set of clothes from his Galaxy God Ring, changed, and instantly felt refreshed.
With a thought, Shawn’s mind sank into his lower dantian.
Compared to before, his sword essence had grown at least threefold, though its purity hadn’t improved much—it would take more time to refine.
Next, his gaze shifted to his mid dantian.
The mid dantian’s cultivation was still at early Foundation Establishment. With both dantians combined, he wasn’t quite at late Foundation, but he was close.
Suddenly—
The Azure Lotus Sword appeared in his hand.
He poured sword essence into it and swung.
"Swoosh!"
The air split like a torn sheet, and a spatial rift five or six meters long and a meter wide appeared.
It lingered for a full ten seconds before fading away.
Back when he first got the Azure Lotus Sword, he’d managed to tear open a rift in the void even without infusing sword essence, and it had lasted several seconds before disappearing.
But the spatial barrier in that world was way weaker than this one. Just the sword alone couldn’t cut open the void here.
Afterward, Shawn retrained Lotus Blooming, Lotus Sword Formation, and Sword Essence Slash, deepening his mastery over the first three moves of the Azure Lotus Sword Codex.
But his understanding of the fourth move, Spirit Sword, was still stuck—no progress at all.
Putting away the Azure Lotus Sword, Shawn headed back toward the stronghold.
Ever since he’d brought the two Saintesses back, Shawn hadn’t bothered with them. Now, he figured it was time to pay them a visit.
Both women had their dantians sealed and were confined in a small courtyard, guarded only by ordinary bandit underlings.
They’d been pretty sensible, staying quiet these past few days and not trying to escape.
"Chief!"
"Hello, Chief!"
When the two guards outside the courtyard saw Shawn, they immediately bowed respectfully.
"Good work. You guys can go now."
"Yes, sir," the two underlings replied in unison.
Shawn pushed open the courtyard gate and walked in. It was dusk, and the two Saintesses were sitting at a stone table in the yard, leisurely playing chess. They didn’t seem worried at all about what Shawn might do to them.
"How have you two been these past few days?"
Shawn greeted them with a friendly smile.
"Greetings, Chief."
"Greetings, Chief."
Both women stood up and greeted Shawn politely.
Seeing how calm they were, Shawn actually felt a little bored. He’d expected the two Saintesses to rage at him, demand their freedom, maybe even threaten him. Guess he’d underestimated them.
Suddenly, Shawn gave them a mischievous look. "Aren’t you worried about what I might do to you?"
Faye Xi chuckled. "You’re not that kind of person, Chief."
Shawn deliberately pulled a face. "Hey, don’t give me too much credit. I’m just a bandit chief, you know—I could do all sorts of shameless things."
As he spoke, Shawn suddenly closed in on Faye, his eyes glinting with a predatory look.
Faye’s heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively stepped back, but Shawn was faster—he wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her into his arms, and stole a kiss.
"Tsk tsk, the Saintess really does have sweet lips!" Shawn teased.
"Shawn Steele, you’re out of line!"
Faye Xi’s face flushed as she struggled out of Shawn’s arms, shouting angrily.
"You call that out of line? I can do way worse!" Shawn grinned, reaching for Faye again. Serena Sima piped up, "Chief, that’s enough! If you keep this up, there won’t be a place for you under heaven!"
"Oh? Are you jealous now?"
Shawn just ignored Serena’s warning, shot her a wicked grin, and reached out for her.
Serena tried her best to dodge, but with her cultivation sealed, there was no way she could escape. Shawn scooped her right up, and before she could react, he planted a kiss on her lips—loud and clear.
"I’ll kill you!"
Serena’s eyes blazed red as she swung a palm at Shawn.
But Shawn didn’t dodge, letting her slap land square on his chest.
"Crap!"
Shawn cursed inwardly as sword essence exploded from his mid dantian, but Serena still sent him flying, slamming him several meters away. He spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Faye, let’s do this together!"
With a shout, Serena dashed forward, trying to finish Shawn off while he was hurt. Faye flashed out a half-moon blade and shot toward his chest like lightning.
"You two are real actresses—I almost fell for it!" Shawn snorted.
Shawn climbed to his feet, his wounds already eighty percent healed by Radiance of Life. He snatched Faye’s half-moon blade with a sword-essence-charged left hand and sent Serena flying with a palm from his right.
Then, with a few flickers of movement, he sealed all their acupoints, immobilizing them.
Checking their bodies with his spiritual sense, Shawn was puzzled—the dantian seals were still intact, so how had they managed to use true essence?
A second probe revealed the trick: over the past few days, they’d secretly stored some true essence in their meridians, letting them pull off the sneak attack.
Shawn smirked coldly. "You two really are schemers!"
Serena, disappointed at failing to kill Shawn, said, "Chief, do you really want to make enemies of the Holy Lands? If you let us go now, we can plead for leniency on your behalf."
"Ha! You think I’m scared of the Three Holy Lands? I was only using you as bait to lure their experts. But since you dared to ambush me, I’ll turn fake into real and actually marry you both as my concubines!" Shawn laughed.
The two Saintesses panicked, regret flashing across their faces.
"Alright, you two just stay here for the next few days. If you try any more tricks, I’ll just sleep with you on the spot!" Shawn threatened, then turned and left the courtyard.
"Faye, what should we do?" Serena cried, nearly in tears.
Faye tried to comfort her. "Don’t worry, Serena. I’m sure the Holy Lands will send someone to rescue us soon." But inside, she wasn’t so sure. Shawn had said he was using them to lure Holy Land experts—maybe Sunrise Peak was full of traps just waiting to catch them.