The only pity was that Jun Moxie encountered the Sacred Tree a tad too late; a significant portion of the vast medicinal power within Qian Xun’s body had been unavoidably wasted. Although the remaining residual effects were still quite substantial, had she truly managed to absorb every last bit of that power, the strength the Snake King could have gained would undoubtedly be described in terrifying terms...
"It seems there’s an enormous amount of medicinal power inside me... I need to start refining it immediately!"
Qian Xun raised her head and looked at Jun Moxie, her eyes already overflowing with deep affection and contented tenderness...
From the medicinal power remaining within her body, she could discern just how much Jun Moxie had sacrificed for her during this time... Even the usually ice-cold Snake King felt a surge of emotion in her heart...
This was entirely the earnest devotion of her beloved...
"Good! You stay here and focus entirely on refining it; I will guard you while you do so!"
Jun Moxie nodded...
Qian Xun cultivated like that for a full day and night!
She maintained a single posture, completely motionless, only the fluctuations of spiritual energy around her shifted from faint to dense, then absorbed; then spiritual energy would appear again, enveloping her entire body... only to be absorbed again...
Every change in the spiritual energy represented another stride forward Qian Xun made on the path of cultivation!
After six such continuous cycles, the activity finally began to ebb...
At the very moment the process was about to cease, Jun Moxie, who had been standing guard nearby, quickly transformed three Tianji Pills into liquid essence and guided them into her cherry-red mouth...
Thus, the spiritual energy undulated fiercely once more!
...
Here, no matter how she broke through, there was no need to worry about the tribulation crisis! The Heavenly Tribulation could not sense this location at all. She only needed to wait until the breakthrough was completely finished before leaving; enduring the tribulation once would suffice. The Hongjun Tower could directly absorb the Heavenly Tribulation, converting it into pure spiritual energy—a perfect act of resourcefulness...
Therefore, Jun Moxie planned to elevate the Snake King to the absolute zenith in one go, reaching the ranks of the peak experts of this era!
Since his woman was capable of such ascension, how could he not facilitate it!
After the spiritual fluctuations brought by consuming the Tianji Pills subsided, Jun Moxie beckoned with his hand. The surging spiritual energy from within the Hongjun Tower gathered swiftly in his palm like a long dragon, slowly solidifying into substance. Then, he carefully extracted a single drop of Jinjin Yuye, merged it within, and following the same pattern, administered it to Qian Xun...
This time, the spiritual energy fluctuation was incomparable to before; it was intensely violent! For the first time, agony showed on the Snake King's face, and her meridians seemed to swell, the blood vessels clearly visible beneath her muscles...
Jun Moxie calmly extended one hand, pressing it against her back, and a stream of infinitely pure spiritual force poured in steadily, helping her digest the medicinal power...
Thin wisps of dark, foul-smelling fluid were slowly squeezed out from Qian Xun's skin...
After a long, long while, Qian Xun finally awoke softly...
"You need to tidy yourself up properly. There’s a small island over there... And here, this piece of clothing... It was prepared specifically for you upon waking. When you go out later, you’ll need to prepare to face the Heavenly Tribulation..."
Jun Moxie smiled faintly, knowing her shyness, and vanished from the Hongjun Tower...
Qian Xun looked at her body, feeling the surging, powerful, pure spiritual energy coursing through her. Gazing in the direction Jun Moxie had departed, she couldn't help but smile happily, though two lines of tears traced paths down her cheeks...
...
At this moment, the sky was thick with oppressive tribulation clouds, and dense lightning struck down incessantly!
Yet, on the ground, Qian Xun nestled in Jun Moxie’s embrace, remaining completely unharmed...
The Hongjun Tower faithfully, almost greedily, swallowed every bolt of lightning that fiercely descended, feasting upon it...
When everything was complete, Jun Moxie carefully examined the Snake King's Profound Energy and discovered with delight: Saint Emperor Level!
It must be remembered that before falling unconscious, Qian Xun was merely a level above Supreme; even Miao Xiaomiao was slightly superior to her.
But after this drastic transformation, she had directly bypassed the four levels of Venerable and the four levels of Saint, ascending in one swift move to the Saint Emperor tier, seemingly not much inferior to Mei Xueyan when they had last parted!
After all, she possessed the essence blood of the Sacred Tree spanning several millennia more than Mei Xueyan...
If one were to count the preliminary, intermediate, and peak stages of each rank, this advancement represented an astonishing leap of nearly thirty total grades in a single instance!
Such progress, even described as stepping into the heavens, could only be considered fitting, not an exaggeration in the slightest!
Even Qian Xun herself, upon learning the extent of her advancement, gasped with wide-open mouth, unable to recover for a long time. Saint Emperor? Was she a Saint Emperor powerhouse? She didn't even recall ever hearing of that tier...
One afternoon, a day later, a man and a woman slowly walked into a small town on the northern outskirts of the Tianxiang Kingdom...
The man was clad in white robes, his features handsome and refined, his build tall and slender; his loose robes flowed elegantly, and his demeanor was noble and dashing. The woman was dressed in green, petite in stature, yet heartbreakingly captivating, possessing the exquisite fragility of a dreamlike spirit...
Especially the woman's attire—it was like mist obscuring a delicate peony, like glimpsing a flower through fog—it was impossible to discern the material, yet it lent the beauty an ethereal, dreamlike transcendence... As she walked down the road, it gave the impression that she had drifted in on clouds and mist!
These two were naturally the world-renowned Sovereign of Evil, Jun Moxie, and the Snake King, Qian Xun!
As for Qian Xun's garment, it was one of the Nine Celestial Robes gifted to the Young Master Jun by the First Young Master of the Nine Hells in the secret chamber atop the Snow Mountain: one of those nine robes! It seemed the Young Master Jun had only now found the opportunity to bestow one upon his woman. These nine robes were not monochrome; they came in various colors, and this pure green robe was the only one of its kind.
When Jun Moxie presented it, Qian Xun instantly adored it and changed into it immediately.
Indeed, wearing this robe, set against her complexion as pure as snow and frost, the Snake King became even more breathtakingly beautiful...
After the tribulation was complete, Qian Xun immediately ushered Young Master Jun aside, ordering him not to show himself. Only then did she secretly retreat nearly a hundred li away before feeling safe enough to resolve the awkward necessity of "a person's three urgent needs"...
This rogue, he feeds me until I’m about to burst... "I’m genuinely about to burst from being overfed..."
If such a severe injury didn't claim my life, wouldn't it be such a waste if my stomach actually burst from food?
The Snake King naturally did not know, and Young Master Jun certainly wouldn't invite trouble by explaining willingly... Young Master Jun had always assumed that since she was a Profound Beast, her consumption would naturally be vast, similar to Xiong Kaishan whose appetite was legendary. Therefore, after the Sacred Tree treated Qian Xun, Jun Moxie fed her according to half the total volume Xiong Wang consumed, fearing he might starve his beloved...
He only stopped when he truly couldn't force any more food down her throat... Not only was Qian Xun pained by the eating, but Young Master Jun's jaws ached from chewing so much. A kiss of fragrance was a pleasure, but a hundred or a thousand kisses was rather... unpleasant.
However, if he were to speak of it, he would undoubtedly face ruthless pursuit from the Snake King... You treated me like a pig being force-fed, and not just one pig, perhaps the feed for several pigs!
Moreover, Young Master Jun's collection within the Hongjun Tower gained several new treasures: a full five or six snakeskins! It was known that the Snake King needed to shed her skin once every time she advanced. Naturally, the Snake King would not allow the Young Master to be present during this process... This was because the Snake King had advanced so much at once; if it had been a gradual step-by-step progression, there might have been twenty or so skins...
However, His Majesty the Snake King felt quite embarrassed about this matter, but Jun Moxie didn't mind in the slightest... Brother already knew you were the Snake King, and I’ve taken you as my wife; what's there to care about? Besides, the legendary Lady White Snake, Bai Suzhen, still bore children back then... You are far more formidable than she is... Brother cares for nothing!,"
As for later, Young Master Jun had intended to give her the Seven-Colored Sacred Fruit and the Exquisite Lotus, but Qian Xun asked a simple question: "Has Big Sister eaten any?"
Young Master Jun honestly replied no, certainly not; these items had just been acquired, it would be utterly unbelievable if she had eaten them!
As a result, the Snake King absolutely refused to eat them, even proclaiming that she would not eat them unless Big Sister had consumed them first!
The Snake King's steadfast insistence left Jun Moxie both helpless and genuinely gratified on Mei Xueyan's behalf!
Along this journey, wherever they encountered human settlements, they could see highly skilled Profound Practitioners rushing along at full gallop, as if some urgent matter demanded their immediate attention, like their own backside was on fire.
Such frequent sightings certainly could not all be the same group!
Along the way, Jun Moxie had already seen seven or eight waves of people riding swift horses, flashing past them like a gust of wind...
These martial world knights were all in a desperate hurry, and their eyes held an ineffable eagerness. In ordinary times, if they encountered a beauty as captivating as the Snake King Qian Xun on the road, even the most disciplined among them would likely offer a flirtatious remark or try to speak a few words out of turn... As for whistles and lewd chuckles, those would be ceaseless. Yet today, not a single person actively approached them to strike up a conversation... At most, after their horses galloped past, they would turn back for a greedy glance, but that lecherous look would vanish with the thunderous sound of hooves before anger could even surface, leaving only rolling dust in their wake!
This left the Snake King Qian Xun somewhat depressed, even a little disappointed. Had her charm diminished so much since her return? She couldn't help but walk along looking somewhat sulky...
But Jun Moxie’s mind turned to another possibility.
Had some major event recently occurred in the martial world? Or was some momentous event about to happen?
Perhaps even the War of Seizing Heaven was about to commence early!
Otherwise, there was no way to explain why these martial world experts were all behaving so aberrantly? So incredibly rushed... Judging by their mannerisms, Jun Moxie was absolutely certain: even if someone had died in their own families, they wouldn't be running this fast!
This was truly astonishing!
The problem was that these people were moving too quickly to even catch a moment to ask questions... Of course, Young Master Jun could forcibly stop them, but Jun Moxie had no desire to do so.
With the elevation of his profound arts, his state of mind had grown increasingly steady. The Young Master seemingly no longer possessed the inclination for such bullying of the weak.
However, even if some important matter was indeed unfolding, he could simply seek out an information-rich location to inquire later. After all, he wasn't in any particular hurry.