Replenish?

"How are you holding up? Are you alright?"

Lu Yuan looked over at Si Tingxue.

Her dazed expression slowly cleared. A flicker of lingering fear crossed her eyes.

"It's a good thing you were here. By the end, I don't think I could have recovered on my own."

At the most grueling point of the Gene Inscription, Si Tingxue had nearly lost consciousness. The rate at which her body had been disintegrating was beyond imagination — without powerful healing ability, there was simply no stopping the dissolution. She realized now that she had gravely underestimated what inscribing a Sovereign Grade Transcendent Gene would demand. If Lu Yuan hadn't been there, she would likely have died.

At the thought, she lifted her gaze to him, a soft light in her eyes.

Lu Yuan heard her and smiled. "Didn't I say I'd stand guard for you? With me here, you don't need to worry."

Si Tingxue gave a gentle nod. "Mm."

Then she stiffened.

She realized she was facing him directly — because during the inscription's final stages, her body had been writhing so violently that she had long since abandoned any sitting position.

Her face froze. She looked at Lu Yuan with the dead-eyed resignation of someone who had lost the will to live.

"...Had a good look?"

Lu Yuan startled, glanced at the dried blood covering her body, and cleared his throat. "It's basically all blood. Can't see much of anything."

Only then did it sink in. Seeing herself covered head to toe in blood, Si Tingxue went completely numb. The thought that Lu Yuan had seen her looking this disheveled made her want to sink through the floor.

The embarrassment was so acute she nearly wanted to die.

She ducked her head slightly. "...Was it very bad? The way my body was falling apart earlier?"

"Not at all." Lu Yuan glanced over at her. "With my healing ability, you'd barely get hurt before I had you healed again. Don't worry about that — your figure looks great." A beat. "Just a little flat."

Si Tingxue blinked. It took a moment for the words to land.

Then she looked down at herself.

The corner of her mouth twitched violently.

Tendrils of icy cold began radiating from her body.

*Oh no.* Lu Yuan felt the chill and his heart lurched. *I accidentally said that out loud.*

He quickly cleared his throat. "Don't worry — even if you're flat, I still li—"

An ice spear came flying at him before he could finish. Lu Yuan ducked with his hands over his head and looked up at her with an expression of complete innocence.

Her face was crimson — a mortified fury that stripped away every trace of her usual cool composure.

"...Say that — that *thing* — one more time and I'll kill you! And then myself!"

"...What did I say just now? I seem to have forgotten."

A look of total bewilderment settled onto Lu Yuan's face.

Si Tingxue blinked. Then she tugged at the corner of her mouth and gave him an exasperated eye-roll.

She averted her gaze slightly. "...My body still hasn't fully recovered. Help me wash up."

Lu Yuan: ???

His heart jumped. He swallowed.

"...Absolutely. Leave it to me!"

*[...tens of thousands of words graciously omitted...]*

The next morning, Lu Yuan sat quietly watching Si Tingxue rest, a trace of fatigue still lingering on her face. The corner of his mouth curved upward in a small smile as he gazed at her flawless features.

After a little while, her lashes stirred. She slowly opened her eyes.

The first thing she saw was his face. She startled — and then a flush crept across hers. She reached out and shoved at him, trying to push him off the bed.

"...Just get out."

Lu Yuan: ???

He was a little dumbstruck. *What on earth is this?*

*Done with me and don't recognize me? Isn't that usually the man's move?*

*Wait — am I not the man here?!*

*Isn't this completely backwards?!*

He slid off the bed with a look of total innocence. "You should rest today. Yesterday was a little..."

"Don't you dare finish that sentence."

Si Tingxue shot him a look, then said, more quietly: "...I just inscribed a Sovereign Grade Transcendent Gene. I genuinely am tired. I'll rest for a day."

Lu Yuan rolled his eyes and didn't bother pointing out that her excuse was transparent. "Alright. Get some rest. I'll bring you breakfast in a bit."

Si Tingxue pulled the blanket over herself, burying even her head beneath it. A muffled voice emerged from somewhere inside.

"I'm not eating."

"...Don't you want to replenish yourself a little?"

Lu Yuan looked quizzically at the blanketed lump. *She had a rough time yesterday, after all.* Not to brag, but the gap in physical endurance between himself and Si Tingxue was genuinely enormous. If he hadn't been holding back, she wouldn't have made it through.

Si Tingxue went very quiet.

Then came the sound of someone grinding their teeth.

"...No need."

Lu Yuan nodded. Then something occurred to him. "Do you want to change the sheets?"

"...GET OUT!"

He sensed the murderous aura, felt a jolt, and beat a hasty retreat.

After washing up, Lu Yuan opened the door — and found Rebecca hurriedly straightening from where she'd been leaning against the wall.

Lu Yuan: ?

He took in her crimson face, and his own expression became deeply strange.

*This girl... she wasn't eavesdropping, was she?!*

*That's... not exactly appropriate, is it?!*

He was completely at a loss.

Seeing his bewildered face, Rebecca instantly raised a finger to her lips and made a shushing gesture, sending a voice transmission at the same time:

*"A-Yuan, A-Yuan! Don't make a sound! If Xiao Xue finds out she'll kill me!"*

As she spoke, she cast a nervous glance toward the inner room.

Lu Yuan's mouth twitched hard.

*Good grief. If you're this scared of dying, how did you dare in the first place?*

*She actually had the nerve to eavesdrop...*

Though — come to think of it, he hadn't sensed anyone by the door last night. Maybe she'd only just arrived this morning?

He glanced at Rebecca, then back at the room, then stepped outside and quietly pulled the door shut behind him. The two of them made their way to the small courtyard, and Lu Yuan turned to look at her with a profoundly strange expression.

"...How did you end up at the door?"

Rebecca's face was still flushed. The look she gave him was a little odd, with a faint note of complaint in her voice.

"...Whose fault is it for being so loud last night?"

Lu Yuan: ???

*He could state with absolute certainty: the loud one was not him.*

He also understood something now. *Next time, I'll need to use my spatial ability to create a sealed space. It just didn't occur to me this time.*

Fortunately, Lu Yuan had fairly thick skin. He cleared his throat. "So that's why... So you came over this morning to check on things?"

Rebecca blinked and sheepishly drew circles on the ground with her toe, then looked at him with open curiosity.

"...What does it feel like?"

Lu Yuan: ???

*Something's not quite right with this person.*

He shot her a sharp look. "...Ask me that after you've inscribed your own gene. Tingxue has already inscribed a Sovereign Grade Transcendent Gene."

At that, Rebecca grew serious. She gave a firm nod. "I want to try too. A-Yuan, you'll stand guard for me as well, right?"

"Of course."

Lu Yuan smiled.

He produced three red orbs of light and handed them to her.

Rebecca made her selection almost the moment she finished looking — unlike Si Tingxue, who had apparently suffered from acute decision paralysis.

She chose a Combat Technique called "Flame Demon Body."

Once active, it could massively boost the power of her fire-element Combat Techniques and would also raise all of her attributes — primarily Mental Power, with significant gains in defense and speed as well. It was an excellent fit for an Elemental Type warrior like her.

Rebecca took the gene and looked at Lu Yuan, a glimmer rising in her eyes, grinning as she spoke.

"I need to go to the bathroom too."

Lu Yuan caught the look in her eyes, cleared his throat, and assumed a perfectly serious expression.

"Alright. It would be difficult to clean up otherwise."

They went to Rebecca's room, and Lu Yuan noticed it was quite different from Si Tingxue's — cosmetics and skincare products were scattered across every surface, and several outfits lay tossed across the bed as if she'd been deliberating over what to wear.

He understood: compared to Si Tingxue, Rebecca had never been particularly devoted to cultivation. The ordinary pleasures of a young woman were what had truly appealed to her. But under Lu Yuan's and Si Tingxue's influence, the Rebecca of now was a different person from before — at the very least, far more diligent. She hadn't abandoned her old interests, of course. She still had a particular fondness for all manner of feminine things.

Lu Yuan's gaze paused briefly on a pair of black stockings draped across the bed. He quietly looked away.

Rebecca hadn't noticed. Her face had been red since the moment they stepped through the door, and she kept her head down as she walked deeper into the room.

Soon, the two of them arrived at the bathroom.

As if it had been prearranged, Rebecca shut her eyes tightly and placed her hands on the hem of her outer garment.

Lu Yuan: ???

He watched her — face flushed crimson, eyes firmly shut — apparently without the slightest thought of asking him to look away, and couldn't help the twitch at the corner of his mouth.

*At least Tingxue had asked him to turn around. Rebecca, on the other hand...*

*But... the difference in scale between them is quite significant.*

He snuck a glance and found himself making comparisons, only to feel immediately that he was being completely unreasonable. *I literally just finished with Tingxue and here I am drawing comparisons already.*

*What the hell... I really am not a good person.*

Lu Yuan silently condemned himself — then proceeded to continue looking in a perfectly casual, totally-not-intentional sort of way.

A moment later, Rebecca, trying to cover herself, stole a glance at him — and met his eyes directly.

Her face went scarlet. She wrenched her gaze away like a startled rabbit.

*If you're this shy, you could have at least asked me to look away!* Lu Yuan thought, mouth twitching.

Unlike her usual vivacious, chatty self, Rebecca didn't say a single word — as though her voice had been taken from her. She hurried into the bathtub, turned her back to him, and only then, trembling violently, managed to speak.

"A-A-Yuan, A-Yuan — I — I'm ready!"

"...Mm. Alright."

Recalling what had happened with Si Tingxue, Lu Yuan quickly reminded her: "Use the spirit fruits and spirit liquid first. Then enhance your Gene Armaments."

Rebecca's hand, which had already reached for the Sovereign Grade gene, went rigid. She quietly put the "Flame Demon Body" away.

She consumed the spirit fruits and spirit liquid first, then proceeded to enhance her Gene Armaments.

Although her baseline was slightly below Si Tingxue's — she was Innate Chief Grade — the spirit resources had boosted her so significantly that she was just barely able to enhance two Sovereign Grade Gene Armaments.

After enhancing them, she spent several hours composing herself before finally beginning the inscription.

The same problem arose as before, but worse. Rebecca's baseline was lower than Si Tingxue's, and the moment the inscription began, her body nearly burst apart — great craters of blood blooming open across her skin. Fortunately, Lu Yuan had been ready. He began healing the instant it started.

The wounds closed as fast as they opened, but Rebecca's snow-white skin and orange hair were stained crimson regardless, her low, ragged cries of pain unceasing.

Having been through Si Tingxue's inscription, Lu Yuan drew a deep breath, settled on the edge of the bathtub, and kept Life's Gift active without interruption.

Before long, Rebecca's body began writhing in agony, unable to hold any position. Her hands scrabbled blindly until they found his leg — and then she clung to it like a lifeline, gripping with every ounce of her strength.

Had Lu Yuan's body not been strong enough, that grip could have snapped his leg.

He let her hold on and continued healing.

Time passed. After several days, Rebecca's inscription finally completed. Masses of flame erupted from her body, engulfing her entirely — and lapping at Lu Yuan as well.

For him, with his physical endurance, it was nothing more than pleasant warmth.

The surroundings, however, began to ignite. This was flame born from inscribing a Sovereign Grade gene — even the slight overflow carried tremendous heat.

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow and isolated a pocket of space around the two of them, containing the fire before it could spread.

He watched Rebecca with something close to tenderness as she lay there with her eyes shut. *She's fighting the gene's Soul Remnant right now. That'll take a while.*

Several days later, the flames finally ebbed away, revealing her blood-covered body.

"Ugh... I nearly died from the pain..."

Rebecca winced, groaning as she slowly opened her eyes.

Then she saw Lu Yuan.

He smiled at her. "How are you doing? Are you alright?"

She came back to herself, and a radiant smile broke across her blood-streaked face. "A-Yuan, A-Yuan — I did it!"

"I know. That's our Rebecca."

Lu Yuan gave her a thumbs-up.

She laughed with smug satisfaction — and then discovered she was still hugging his leg. She froze.

*When had she gotten into this position?!*

After a brief, rigid pause, she suddenly looked up at him — a shimmer rising in her eyes — and began to climb upward, draping herself around him like a sloth on a branch. Those amber eyes fixed on his, and she asked the same question as before.

"...What does it feel like?"

*[...tens of thousands more words graciously omitted...]*

After resting for a full day, Si Tingxue felt steady enough on her legs to finally leave her room.

She immediately sensed an unusual fluctuation coming from Rebecca's direction.

She raised an eyebrow, glancing toward Rebecca's room. *Rebecca is inscribing her gene.*

And Lu Yuan was clearly in there with her.

At the thought, Si Tingxue bit her lower lip softly, then let out a quiet sigh.

"That bastard."

She paced back and forth for a few steps, then quietly made her way to the door of Rebecca's room and sat down cross-legged, abandoning any thought of cultivating.

Even though Lu Yuan was inside keeping watch, Rebecca was her closest friend. She chose to stay — and keep vigil.