They continued cultivating without pause, the minutes stretching into hours as the chamber became a whirlpool of clashing, intertwining energies. The air trembled from the force of their combined efforts, and the spiritual pressure rising from the circle grew so intense that even the reinforced palace walls creaked softly in protest.
Lucas remained at the centre...every breath he drew absorbing the Yin energy pouring into him from the four women. His body trembled repeatedly as he wrestled with the boundary of the grandmaster realm. The ascendant threshold was notoriously difficult for anyone to breach. Even prodigies could spend years attempting it. But Lucas wasn't relying on talent alone...he was drawing on an enormous reservoir of Yin that the bound women willingly fed him.
The pressure inside him built rapidly, raw and violent.
His meridians pulsed, swelling and shrinking as waves of energy battered them. His dantian burned like a miniature sun ready to explode.
