Extra 4 (Part 2): Burning Through the Moonlight (NSFW)

The wind on the Golden Core Avenue was quiet tonight. No howling gales. No echoes of beasts. Just the two of them, seated side by side beneath a sky strung with stars like scattered spirit pearls. 

Su Min's sleeves brushed against Xie Yingying's as she shifted, bold as always, but this time her voice held a strange hesitance. "Yingying... come closer. I won't bite."

Xie Yingying gave her a side glance, cool and unreadable as moonlight on still water. But then, slowly, deliberately, she extended her slender hand, resting it atop Su Min's.

For a moment, neither moved. The silence was not awkward, but suspended — like the brief breath before a talisman activated.

Su Min turned her hand, entwining their fingers. "There. Look at us. Holding hands like a pair of shy young maidens from some mortal drama."

Xie Yingying's lashes fluttered, the faintest huff leaving her lips. "You're the one blushing, not me."

"I'm flushed because you're cold like a ghost, Yingying," Su Min teased. "What, cultivating with the moon made you heartless?"

But her grip tightened gently. Not mocking. Grounding.

Moments passed. One day became two. Then three.

What began as hand-holding turned to Xie Yingying allowing Su Min's arm around her waist, then leaning into her warmth without pulling away. They practiced, meditated, cultivated side by side. Nights grew long, and in those lingering hours, there were embraces under blankets and soft brushes of lips to cheeks — until one day, Su Min kissed her on the lips.

It was not passion-driven. It was quiet. Almost reverent. And Xie Yingying, far from cold, kissed her back.

They had time. They took it.

Until tonight.

The glow-moss clinging to the quartz walls pulsed softly, casting wavering light over the cultivation scrolls spread across their bedroll. Dual Cultivation: Harmonization of Solar and Lunar Essence. The ink strokes stood stark and precise against aged parchment - so clinical, so measured - a brutal contrast to the wildfire simmering beneath Su Min's skin as Xie Yingying's fingers brushed against hers.

They had taken this slowly. Painfully slowly. Hands first, then waists, then the tentative press of lips to cheeks, then—finally—lips to lips. Each step had been a negotiation, a silent agreement between two people who had never let anyone this close before.

But tonight was different.

Tonight, they weren't just lovers. They were cultivators. Partners.

"The first step," Xie Yingying murmured, fingertip tracing a line of gold-threaded calligraphy, "requires full synchronization of energy pathways. It begins with a kiss."

"Just a kiss?" Su Min grinned. "I thought the Ancients would at least ask for some tongue."

Xie Yingying gave her a look — dry, unimpressed — but her ears had turned crimson.

They both took a breath. This was the first time they would try it — the real thing. Not idle touching. Not stolen warmth beneath silks.

Su Min's body shimmered with a sudden flare of white light. Her qi surged, radiant and brilliant — a miniature sun igniting inside her meridians. 

"I won't last long in this form," she warned, the grin still there but trembling. "Three minutes. Four if you flatter me."

Xie Yingying's breath caught. It wasn't just her vision — even her Lunar Sovereign Physique was reacting, trembling with instinct. This wasn't like before. Su Min's Solar Sovereign Physique had fully awakened, even if temporarily. Her fingers tightened around Su Min's, her pupils dilating as the Lunar Sovereign Physique reacted, drawn to its counterpart like a starving thing. 

Su Min leaned forward, her lips brushing against hers.

The kiss was gentle. Soft. Their lips met in perfect silence, but the moment Su Min pushed just a fraction deeper, white qi surged outward, threading into Xie Yingying's mouth.

Her back arched.

A moan slipped free.

She didn't mean to — but the moment their tongues touched and that radiant qi slid into her channels, her mind blanked. All technique, all sequences, all the elegant diagrams of the Scripture—

Gone.

What remained was heat. Ache. Desperation.

The kiss turned ravenous. She surged forward, her hands tangling in Su Min's robes, her body pressing flush against hers. The cold detachment that usually clung to her like armor was gone, replaced by something molten, desperate. Su Min barely had time to register the shift before Xie Yingying's tongue swept into her mouth, stealing her breath, her thoughts—

—and then her balance, as Xie Yingying pushed her back onto the bed.

"Yingying—" Su Min gasped, but the protest died in her throat as Xie Yingying straddled her, her hair spilling like moonlight over them both. Her eyes were dark, hungry, her usually composed features flushed with need.

"You," Xie Yingying breathed, as if the word itself burned her.

The Scripture's instructions were forgotten. There was only this—the slide of skin, the heat between them, Xie Yingying's fingers trembling as they undid Su Min's sash.

And Su Min, overwhelmed by that raw sincerity — the trembling restraint barely holding Xie Yingying together — gave in.

Their robes fell open like petals loosening in the night breeze.

Xie Yingying's soft flower pressed against Su Min's thigh, already damp with desire. She rocked against her, clinging to the warmth of the Taiyang qi like a drowning woman. Her body, attuned to the Yin resonance, bloomed under the heat — so sensitive she gasped when Su Min's fingers brushed against her inner thigh.

Su Min groaned softly. "You're burning up. Who's the cold one now, huh?"

But her teasing faltered as Xie Yingying kissed her again — not with lips, but with her entire body. She pressed their flowers together, grinding, seeking, trembling with every stroke. Wet, hot, slick — their petals slid in sync, hips meeting in desperate rhythm.

"Su Min—more—don't stop—" she gasped, voice breaking, no longer the aloof Maiden but a woman undone.

A choked moan escaped Xie Yingying's lips, her back arching, her nails biting into Su Min's shoulders. She moved like a woman possessed, chasing the pleasure that the resonance between their physiques amplified tenfold. Every roll of her hips was frantic, starved, as if she could fuse them together through sheer force.

Su Min gripped her waist, her own breath coming in ragged bursts. She had kissed Xie Yingying a hundred times, had learned the shape of her body in slow, tender explorations—but this was something else. This was wildfire.

Xie Yingying's climax hit her like a breaking wave. She cried out, her fingers twisting in the sheets. The sight of her—proud, icy Xie Yingying, unraveling so completely—sent Su Min tumbling after her, pleasure cresting in a white-hot rush.

For a heartbeat, they clung to each other, sweat-slick and breathless.

Three minutes.

Su Min's Taiyang qi started to recede.

And as it faded, so too did the maddening haze in Xie Yingying's mind. She slowed, panting, face buried against Su Min's neck, their bodies still entangled, petals still pressed soft and wet.

"I—" Xie Yingying whispered, breath shaky, lips brushing against Su Min's collarbone. "I lost control."

Su Min ran her hand down Xie Yingying's back. "You didn't force me. I wanted it too. Just… wasn't expecting the holy maiden to be such a beast."

A soft chuckle. Then quiet again.

No words of love were exchanged. None were needed.

Their breathing slowly steadied, flowers still nestled together in the quiet warmth between their thighs. The Golden Core Avenue whispered around them, the stars above indifferent — and yet, something sacred had happened.

Two Sovereign legacies had touched. Two hearts, once uncertain, now beat in tandem.

And in that silence, something began to grow.

Something far more terrifying — and far more precious — than power.

Love.

The morning after, the wind carried the scent of dew and wild lotus, but Su Min didn't smell it.

She was too busy staring at Xie Yingying — who, for once, was not sitting in composed stillness with that usual frostbitten calm. No, today the holy maiden was curled beside her, chin resting on folded arms, long hair splayed out across Su Min's lap like flowing midnight.

Eyes half-lidded. Lips parted slightly. Silent.

But watching.

"…You're staring," Su Min muttered, brushing a strand of hair from her lover's cheek. "That's creepy, you know."

"You kissed me first," Xie Yingying said simply.

"That was yesterday."

Xie Yingying didn't respond. Instead, she reached for Su Min's hand and laced their fingers together.

Su Min sighed.

"I know that look," she said. "Don't even say it. The answer is—"

"I want to try again."

Su Min froze. "Yingying…"

The woman sat up, eyes gleaming with that subtle hunger again. "I'll try to follow the Scripture. Step by step. I promise."

"You said that last time." Su Min groaned. "Right before you jumped me like a starving beast in heat."

Xie Yingying's ears flushed red — but her voice was steady. "Then don't activate your Solar Sovereign Physique so early."

"That's the first step."

"I'll endure," she said.

The second attempt began with promises. They kissed. Slow. Deliberate. The kind of kiss meant to remember the person by, not just take.

Su Min let her Solar Sovereign Physique awaken.

Immediately, she felt Xie Yingying tremble.

But the Holy Maiden didn't break.

Not yet.

She deepened the kiss. One hand on Su Min's cheek. The other sliding to her waist… then hips… then lower.

"Yingying—" Su Min's voice faltered as she was gently pushed back onto the bed, Taiyin energy swirling like a cool breeze against her heated skin.

"I want to try something," Xie Yingying murmured, her breath ghosting over Su Min's ear like moonlight on still water.

Su Min huffed, half-lidded eyes gleaming with suspicion. "What happened to restraint?"

"This is restraint," she replied—soft, almost reverent—but her voice carried that dangerously sweet undertone that always meant trouble. "I'm just… taking my time."

Her hand drifted lower.

Su Min inhaled sharply as fingertips found the soaked warmth between her thighs. But Xie Yingying didn't rush—no grinding, no mindless urgency this time.

Just the lightest graze of her fingers along swollen petals, wet and trembling with anticipation.

Tentative at first.

A stroke here. A brush there.

Teasing.

Mapping her with curious reverence—like she was trying to learn Su Min's every tremor by touch alone.

Then, slowly, her fingers slid between the delicate petals, slick heat welcoming her in.

She didn't enter—not yet. Instead, she teasing gently along the tender seam, spreading slickness with each pass. And then she moved upward, gently circling a certain tender bud nestled there. Su Min's hips twitched, a ragged moan spilling from her lips before she could catch it.

"There," Xie Yingying whispered, almost to herself. "You react so sweetly right… here."

Her fingertip danced around the delicate bud, slow and knowing, drawing soft gasps and half-formed curses from Su Min's mouth.

And only after Su Min was pliant under her touch—eyes glazed, breath hitching—did Xie Yingying finally let her fingers sink inside.

The tight, wet heat clenched instinctively around her touch.

The motion was steady. Deep. Unhurried.

Su Min's back arched. "Yingying—!" Her voice cracked, half a moan, half a plea.

Xie Yingying leaned down, brushing her lips over Su Min's collarbone. She nipped there lightly—barely enough to sting—then whispered, "So this is what you feel like inside…"

Her thumb resumed circling, slow and intoxicating, as her fingers curled—gently, experimentally—within Su Min's soaked warmth.

"Y-You little… ngh—!" Su Min arched as another finger joined, her thoughts scattered the moment pressure and rhythm aligned.

Xie Yingying listened with her body: every flutter of inner walls, every gasp, every unconscious arch of hips became a guide.

Her breaths grew ragged. Her rhythm faster. Her lips found Su Min's again and this time the kiss was messy, desperate, all tongues and teeth.

Restraint shattered.

Again.

But it didn't stop.

The next night, Xie Yingying pressed against her back as they meditated, breath ghosting her ear.

"Just one more time."

"No."

A soft sigh. Then fingers tracing along Su Min's collarbone. "What if I beg?"

"Still no."

"What if I do this?" A daring kiss brushed Su Min's neck. A palm slid under her sash.

Su Min cursed. "Yingying, don't seduce me like some desperate widow!"

But her protest was weak. And her body… weaker still.

~

It was late. The moon hung high, casting silver over the stone veranda where Su Min lay sprawled on her side, lazily flipping through a tattered ancient scroll. A half-empty teacup steamed beside her. She looked perfectly at ease.

Until soft footsteps padded over.

Xie Yingying knelt behind her—silent, calm. Too calm.

Su Min didn't look up. "No."

"I didn't say anything."

"You're thinking it. I can hear it."

A small pause.

Then, "...Just one more time."

Su Min groaned, dragging the scroll over her face. "You said that three times ago."

"I know."

"Yingying."

"Mm."

There was a long silence.

Then—fingers. Cool fingertips brushing the nape of her neck, lifting her hair as if on accident. Su Min froze.

"You're shameless," she muttered into the scroll.

"I learned from the best," Xie Yingying said, utterly deadpan. Then she leaned closer. Her breath grazed Su Min's ear. "You make such pretty sounds when I touch you."

Su Min flushed. "That's because you don't just touch. You devour."

"So let me devour you. Just once more."

A hand crept over her waist, slow and patient, while lips kissed the shell of her ear.

Su Min made a strangled noise. "Yingying—!"

"If you really want me to stop…" she whispered, "you'll have to push me away."

The hand slid lower. The kiss deepened—now at her jaw, soft and sweet and maddening.

Su Min didn't move.

Didn't even pretend to push.

Instead, she growled, "You manipulative little moon demon."

Xie Yingying smiled—small, pleased, victorious. "Then I take that as a yes."

~

Night after night, they tried again.

And again.

~

Su Min sat cross-legged on their dwelling. Her robes were loosened, her hair tied up in a lazy knot as she flipped through a jade slip of alchemy formulas.

A quiet rustle of silk.

Xie Yingying approached with the soundless grace of snowfall.

"I'm studying," Su Min said without looking up.

"I noticed."

Cool fingers trailed over her nape. Uninvited. Unhurried.

Su Min exhaled slowly. "We agreed to wait until your control improves."

"I'm controlling myself right now." Xie Yingying sat behind her, close enough that their knees brushed. Her voice was calm. Too calm. "You haven't seen what I'd do if I wasn't."

"Threatening your lover with lust?" Su Min muttered, sliding the jade slip shut. "Truly holy of you, Maiden Yingying."

A hand ghosted down her spine. "You're the one who called me your personal yin furnace."

"I was joking," Su Min hissed, skin prickling under that featherlight touch.

A pause. Then:

"Then let me be serious."

There was a shift in the air—a gentle heat curling through the Taiyin coldness. Su Min's breath caught as Xie Yingying leaned in, lips brushing the shell of her ear.

"You smell like fire and medicine," she murmured, voice low, reverent. "It clings to you."

"Because I'm an alchemist?"

"No," Xie Yingying whispered. "Because you burn me."

Su Min stiffened—then slowly turned her head.

"Are you poetic now?"

"I'm desperate."

There was no tremble in her voice, no visible blush. Just a steady, dangerous intensity in her eyes. Taiyin gleamed in her pupils like quiet hunger.

"Yingying…" Su Min warned.

But Xie Yingying reached forward and, very slowly, undid the knot of Su Min's sash.

"Let me borrow your fire," she whispered. "Just once more."

Su Min groaned. "You said that last night."

"And the night before." A cool kiss landed at her jaw. "I'm still cold."

"You're insatiable."

"I'm yours."

Silence.

Then Su Min dropped her jade slip with a clack, twisted around, and seized Xie Yingying's chin between her fingers.

"You're lucky I like insane women."

Xie Yingying smiled and leaned in to kiss her.

~

And again.

Sometimes they began with good intentions, with scriptures recited and proper channels aligned.

Yet all ended the same—with Xie Yingying's moans vibrating against Su Min's lips, her body arching like a bowstring pulled taut by Taiyang's relentless sun. Tangled limbs, scriptures forgotten, every gasp swallowed between them as she lost herself in the heat, unable to resist, unable to stop.

Like water always finding cracks in stone, their best intentions eroded. A correctly aligned handhold would slide up a thigh. A shared breath would become a shared mouth. The scriptures might start open on the bed, but they'd inevitably be crushed under grasping hands.

Su Min started teasing her again.

"Aren't you supposed to be the noble, untouchable Holy Maiden?"

Xie Yingying raised a brow. "You're the one who called me your personal yin furnace when you thought I was asleep."

Su Min choked. "Excuse me—! I said you were burning up. Completely different."

"Oh?" Xie Yingying leaned in, lips brushing her ear. "Then why did you say it like you wanted to throw me into your bed and refine me?"

Su Min groaned, covering her face. "You've gotten shameless."

"I learned from the best." Then she bit her lip, her eyes glittering. "I dare you to say it again."

Su Min leaned in, voice low and sinful. "My personal yin furnace."

"Then ignite me properly."

And Su Min, every damn time, obliged.

~

The moonlight spilling into their dwelling was soft—too soft for the storm simmering in Xie Yingying's chest. Su Min had returned late that evening, smelling faintly of spirit herbs and fire essence. Her sleeves dusted with gold ash, her usually sharp eyes glowing with quiet triumph.

The Golden Core Avenue buzzed with her name today. Dozens of cultivators had crowded around her cauldron, desperate for her notice. And among them… Xie Yingying had seen it.

The look in their eyes.

Greedy. Reverent. Hungry.

Especially that Holy Son from the Azure Spirit Sect—smiling like he thought her Min'er could be wooed with mere sect prestige.

Now, Su Min was lounging on the bed, sipping tea as if nothing had happened.

"You're awfully quiet tonight," Su Min said, setting her cup down. "Or is the holy maiden pouting?"

Xie Yingying didn't answer. Instead, she came forward. Her touch lingered on Su Min's wrist.

Cool. Deliberate.

"Something wrong?" Su Min asked, more gently now.

Still no reply.

But Xie Yingying's lips brushed against the base of her throat. A kiss—soft. Then another, lower. A third, this time not so gentle.

A faint scrape of teeth.

Su Min gasped when she felt the pull of a bruise blooming on her collarbone.

"Yingying—"

No answer. Another bite followed—lower, closer to her shoulder. Then a third one just above her collarbone, where no robe could hide it.

Another kiss—harder. Her lips were cool, but the press of them left behind a heat that pulsed with possessive intent.

"I should mark you," Xie Yingying whispered. "So they know you're not… available. They looked at you like they had the right to."

Su Min stilled.

"…You mean the Holy Son?"

"All of them."

A long silence stretched between them. Su Min let out a breath, her body relaxing slightly into Xie Yingying's arms. Then Xie Yingying pushed her gently onto her back, straddling her hips.

Her hands slid down, parting Su Min's robe with reverence, like peeling open a lotus bloom. Her lips returned to the hollow of Su Min's throat, lavishing it with kisses—some soft, some sharp. Su Min arched slightly beneath her, warmth pooling fast.

"Yingying," she murmured again, but softer this time, helplessly fond. "You're being ridiculous."

"This," she said quietly, brushing her fingers along Su Min's chest, "is mine."

Her lips found the curve of Su Min's breast, sucking hard enough to bruise. Then lower, dragging teeth across skin with maddening slowness. Each mark left behind an echo—evidence of want, and need, and a fury she couldn't express any other way.

Her kisses trailed lower. Another bite. A lick over the sting. Another mark where no one would ever see but her.

"And this…"

Fingers dipped between Su Min's thighs, parted her petals with reverence—but also urgency.

"…also mine."

Then she slid down, kissing Su Min's abdomen, trailing her tongue until she reached the soaked petals below. When she licked—slow, languid, deliberate—Su Min cried out softly, fingers twisting in the sheets.

Xie Yingying didn't rush this time.

She worshipped her.

Possessed her.

Made sure that for every look Su Min received in daylight, she'd remember who held her at night.

That night, Su Min's thighs bore the bruises of kisses.

Her neck—bitten, reddened, claimed.

And her heart?

It was already marked.

Years passed. Then decades.

Through every moonlit night on the Golden Core Avenue, their bond deepened. Their synchronization improved.

Until one night, Xie Yingying did not lose control.

They kissed — gentle at first. Then deeply.

Taiyang and Taiyin qi spiraled between them, harmonizing in perfect resonance. Their scriptures aligned step by step — breath, posture, intent.

Su Min's Taiyang light flared.

Xie Yingying's Taiyin channels opened in full.

And then—

Everything changed.

Their consciousnesses expanded, entwined in a vast river of insight — streaks of law, the rhythm of the cosmos, the uncountable threads of the Dao stretched out before them.

It wasn't just dual cultivation.

It was transcendence.

They saw the flow of time.

The fracture in the heavens.

Even Su Min, who once glimpsed truths through her rare Insight ability, had never seen this much. This deep.

Her breath caught. "This is… beyond anything…"

But then—

The Taiyang qi dimmed.

Her core trembled.

And the light collapsed.

Su Min's body jerked, her Solar Sovereign Physique fading away. The conduit snapped. Their connection collapsed like a shattered formation.

They both gasped, pulled from the brink of the Dao like drowning cultivators dragged from the sea.

Xie Yingying was the first to speak. Her voice was soft. Almost afraid.

"Again?"

"No." Su Min's voice was raw. She looked pale. "Not again. I barely held on this time. If we keep forcing it, we'll suffer Dao injuries."

"But we were so close—"

"I know." Su Min snapped — then softened. "I know. But what use is enlightenment if it shatters us before we reach the other shore?"

Xie Yingying looked down.

Su Min reached for her hand.

Their fingers touched. Not with heat this time. But with restraint.

"Someday," Su Min whispered, "you'll hold back. I'll break through. And we'll make it."

Xie Yingying nodded, quietly.

Until then, they sat together, watching the stars — no longer chasing the Dao.

But learning how to walk toward it. Together.

[Notes]

Because this chapter's theme is dual cultivation, I want to expand more on the concept. One of the most common reasons rare physiques are so highly sought after is because of their compatibility with Dual Cultivation (双修, shuāng xiū)—a practice where two cultivators cultivate together to enhance their progress, often achieving results far faster than they would alone. Dual cultivation typically comes in two forms:

Intimate Dual Cultivation (双修, shuāng xiū): This form of dual cultivation is practiced through sexual intimacy, allowing for a deep, physical connection that boosts cultivation speed significantly. Those with matching attributes, such as a Pure Yang Body with a Pure Yin Body, can achieve rapid breakthroughs in their cultivation. However, this type of cultivation can also be exploited by unscrupulous cultivators who force their partners into these relationships solely to accelerate their progress, stripping the act of any consent or affection.

Casual Dual Cultivation (辅助双修, fǔzhù shuāng xiū): A less intimate form that involves simply holding hands or touching the other person's back, still requiring physical contact to connect their energies. Matching attributes still offer a boost, though not as substantial as in intimate dual cultivation. This practice is considered safer but is still sought after for the benefits it provides.

For cultivators of rare physiques, dual cultivation offers a quick path to power but also exposes them to manipulation, coercion, and even assault by those who wish to exploit their unique energies. But in most novel, the term dual cultivation is often used on the intimate ones.

For more information about this you can read on this link

That's also the reason why in the chapter "The Crowded Inheritance Grounds" telling that Xie Yingying is very wary to man. Because Lunar Sovereign (Taiyin) Body is also top tier cauldron (because this physique is top tier Yin physique) in this novel, making her often being targeted for her physique.

As for Su Min, even if she didn't activate her Taiyang qi and become Solar Sovereign Body, inside her body still have yang attributes, meaning that if she did casual dual cultivation with Xie Yingying, it still help them to get boost on their cultivation.