Fortuitous Encounter

When I returned to my body, the pain was unbearable. This was nothing like the first experience in the original timeline. The feeling of getting your body minced into tiny pieces was a pain unlike anything I ever experienced. It hurt so much, I couldn't even shout. Tears were flowing down my face from the sheer pain.

Lu Ze entered my room and embraced me while I was in pain. After a while, the pain receded and I buried my head in Lu Ze's chest. I didn't let him leave and we ended up sleeping in the same bed for the rest of the night.

The next morning, I woke up to see Lu Ze watching me. "You jerk, why didn't you tell me how painful it would be!"

"I'm sorry Lin Ling. I didn't expect to run into that big bird right away. Don't worry, I'll get revenge for you!" He pulled me closer to his chest and rubbed my head. I wasn't upset about him not telling me, since I already knew. I just wanted him to feel bad so that he would treat me better!

"Ze, now that there's two of us, we'll get those orbs a lot more efficiently."

"That's right. Oh, here, I put a lot of orbs in this spatial ring. Use these for now, and when we get better ones, I'll replenish your supply."

I took the ring and gave Lu Ze a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Ze."

He gave me a dumb looking smile and scratched his head. "Hehe, of course."

I rolled my eyes and got out of bed. "Ze, lets eat. We still have some food left from Earth."

He got up and embraced me from behind. "I want to eat Lin Ling's cooking. Let's save the snacks for another time."

I smirked and nodded. "Okay."

After another delicious meal, I stayed in Lu Ze's room to cultivate. I established that I would only do naughty things in his dimension and he begrudgingly agreed. Well, it's not like he had a choice anyway. I took the first red orb and the pure energy flowed through my body.

It went straight to my skin first. Although I was well past the Martial Warrior stage, this energy was able to fix the holes in my foundation. My skin became softer and smoother. I took two orbs at once next, and the energy was still calm enough. These were Core Martial Warrior 1 orbs, so they weren't too difficult for me to absorb.

The energy continued to refine my skin until it was perfected. My skin started to glow milky white to signal that it had reached a fully refined state. I took three orbs this time and there was still no issue. The energy flowed to my muscles and quickly refined them. They were glowing white after an hour and a half.

I was about to continue, but I checked the time first. There were only a few minutes before we arrived back at university so I decided to take a break. I was covered in impurities from cultivating so I decided to wash up quickly. When I came out of the bath, Lu Ze was still cultivating.

Once the ship landed, Lu Ze stopped cultivating and got up. He seemed refreshed and excited. He probably increased his mastery of one of his divine arts. He took my hand and we interlocked fingers. Lu Ze was worried about the rumors, so I suggested we be perfectly clear that we are together.

After exiting the starship, Lu Ze used his Wind God Art to fly us back to our residence. However, when we arrived, I realized just how big of a mistake we made leaving these last two days. Nangong Jing was sitting in Lu Ze's living room with a ticked off expression.

"Oh, you two troublemakers are back. Do you even consider me your teacher? How dare you go play without me!? I mean, how dare you slack off! Looks like you two need some educating."

Nangong Jing dragged the two of us to the virtual reality pod and fought the two of us together. Although she was mad, she still taught us earnestly and the coordination between Lu Ze and I increased significantly.

"Lu Ze, you're full of mistakes in your attacks, so you're unable to release all of your power. Lin Ling, your form and technique are perfect but what you lack is power. I'll be back in a few days to take you over to my ancestor's place. He wants to see the 'Two Greatest Prodigies Since the Twelve Sages'"

"Yes teacher!" We replied simultaneously.

"I forbid you from showing affection when I'm around!" Her eyebrows furrowed and she left before they could protest.

"At least we still have the dimension…" Lu Ze says with relief. I nodded and rested my head on his shoulder. It felt nice monopolizing him like this. But I can't push him into ruining his relationships with the other girls because we are a team.

"Ze, don't think you have to keep away from every girl for my sake. As long as you have my first in your heart, I don't mind if you're close to others. I'm sure your sister and little junior schoolmate would be sad if you started distancing yourself."

"Lin Ling… don't worry, I won't betray your trust." Although Lu Ze could be really dumb sometimes, I knew he was a very genuine person to those close to him. I smiled and stood up.

"Want to spar? We should get used to each other's skills so we can hunt more efficiently." I suggested.

"Good idea. My wife is so smart." I rolled my eyes. We should be around the same strength, so this would come down to technique.

'Heh, this is the last chance I get to beat you up. Of course, I won't miss it!' I thought.

We exchanged a few moves at about half power. I used my Spirit Eyes continuously to perfectly counter every move Lu Ze made. He started to get frustrated so he unleashed his Wings of the Wind and tried to outdo me with speed. Naïve!

I matched his movements by observing his chi flow. Although I was slower than him, my Spirit Eyes allowed me to "see ahead" a few seconds. Unless the opponent had perfect control over their chi, they couldn't prevent the slight telegraphed effect whenever they tried to use a technique. The other alternative would be for Lu Ze to only use his physical body, but that wouldn't be enough.

Realizing this fact, he started to bring out his Fire God Arts. I didn't really have a way to spar with someone since my abilities were more geared towards efficiently taking down my opponent. However, I tried to strike directly at all of Lu Ze's weaknesses so that he would improve.

Honestly, us training together is perfect. He gives me enough pressure to stimulate my potential, and I correct his weaknesses with my Spirit Eyes. We went like that for an hour before we were both exhausted. After leaving Virtual Reality, I quickly made dinner and then went back to my residence despite Lu Ze's complaining.

"We'll see each other again tonight, quit whining. I can't cultivate with you around." I said as I left. I could imagine the arrogant expression he was making at this moment. He is probably thinking something like 'I am so handsome; Lin Ling can't focus on cultivation when I'm around!'

When I got back to my room, I took out four red orbs and started cultivating again. I finally felt some discomfort from doing four at once. The pure energy was very strong and rushed toward my tendons. After a few hours, the energy was used up, but they hadn't been perfectly refined yet. I looked at the time and realized it was almost time to go into the hunting dimension.

With that thought, my consciousness was pulled out of my body and I arrived in that familiar area. Without saying much, Lu Ze and I made love for a while before finally entering the second area again. This time, we arrived in a wooded area.

We encountered a few Core Martial State 2 and 3 with similar battle power to us. However, since they didn't have a God Art and there were two of us now, the hunt was easy. We quickly swept through groups of Core martial State 1's and collected a few God Art orbs.

Suddenly there was a stillness in the dimension. "This aura! It's a baby blue bird, lets go quickly!"

Lu Ze led me to the source of the chi and there was a torrentuous whirlwind blocking what seemed to be a large egg hatching. There were many strong beasts around waiting for the whirlwind to stop so they could charge forward.

"You'll be able to awaken a powerful Wind God Art from the eggshells left behind by this baby blue bird!" Lu Ze sent to me telepathically.