Chapter 182: Divinity

“Brother, lucky you!”

Long Cheng stood before the unconscious Lin Qi and let out a deeply aggrieved sigh.

“Those two girls are truly pitiful. But I’m in too much of a hurry this time, I can’t bring them back to the East. Even if I did, they belong to the Church. If those bastards at the Celestial Temple learned of it, it would mean enormous trouble.”

Long Cheng had been ready to mutter plenty more when suddenly, sweet moans echoed from the lounge. Ya and Ling, usually cold as icebergs, trembled violently. Their skin turned a strange pink, and thick sweat streamed from their bodies, quickly soaking their long dresses.

Long Cheng’s face changed, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks.

“Huh, truly vicious. Why use such a greedy aphrodisiac toxin that forces out all a woman’s innate energy? These girls don’t even have outstanding talents. What good could stealing their energies possibly bring? Why resort to such lowly things?”

“But then, what has it to do with me? I just wanted to watch the show! Someone is scheming against these two women. If I don’t help this act play out fully, what entertainment would I get?”

“Besides,” Long Cheng thought, a sly grin spreading across his face, “these women already hold a grudge against Lin Qi. Sooner or later, he’d just kill them. What a waste it would be for such beauties to be brutally sliced into bloody pieces! To die as lovely virgins without ever tasting life’s sweetest pleasure? It’d be like burning a precious lute to cook a crane – utterly pointless!”

Wearing an evil smile, Long Cheng grabbed Lin Qi. He stripped him bare, then forcefully jabbed his finger onto the ridge of Lin Qi’s nose. With a heave, he flung Lin Qi straight into the lounge, tossing him right onto the two wildly squirming women.

Lin Qi’s consciousness was drowned in thick darkness. Fat Bird Kirk’s knockout incense was terrifyingly potent; Lin Qi had fallen unconscious without a fight. But suddenly, a sharp, stabbing pain carrying a terrifying cold surged through him, slicing through the darkness. His whole body jolted, and he snapped awake.

Though Long Cheng’s finger had roused him, heavy amounts of the incense still filled Lin Qi’s body. Long Cheng had used some sinister Eastern secret technique. He forced a strand of his own Spiritual Willpower and a burst of bitter, icy power he’d cultivated into Lin Qi’s system. It stirred the Primordial Qi within Lin Qi’s blood and bones, violently wrenching him from unconsciousness.

The incense clouded his head, making thought impossible. But Long Cheng’s touch was like throwing explosives beneath a volcano. All Lin Qi’s vitality exploded instantly. His skin flushed red like the two poisoned women, veins bulging beneath the surface. Limitless energy raged within him, surging inexorably towards one crucial spot.

Stripped naked, Lin Qi completely lost his senses. He panted heavily, sheer instinct taking over. His eyes burned red like a wolf’s eyes seeing a lamb as he gazed at the two stunning women writhing madly on the floor. The incense smothered all logic. He gasped and snarled, throwing himself at them like a ravenous beast.

The sound of fabric ripping came first. Then a pained cry. Next, the heavy sound of bodies colliding, followed by the sweet, unrestrained moans, like hundreds of cats crying out on a spring night.

Lin Qi went wild. His blood seethed. His brain, driven insane by the mix of incense and raging heat, knew only one goal. He attacked ferociously, using every ounce of strength to devour the enticing prey before him. He chuckled, a weird sound bubbling from his throat. The two exquisite bodies entranced him, making him dizzy with desire, mad with the urge to melt himself entirely into their soft and delicate forms.

Wave after wave of incredible pleasure surged through him. Lin Qi had never felt anything so glorious. His entire body trembled. Every cell shook with ecstasy. Driven by frenzy, he chased that feeling again and again. He pushed relentlessly down onto the beautiful bodies, squeezing over and over, making the slim figures writhe, shake, and soak the ground with sweat.

Suddenly, the exquisite beauty beneath him let out a desperate, ragged cry. An immense tide of fire roared out – carrying supreme authority and crushing pressure. It flooded into Lin Qi’s body where they were joined. Terrifically hot and endlessly flowing, it felt like an ancient volcanic mountain erupting, pouring infinite energy into him.

Lin Qi’s body began to glow. Heat radiated from him. His body turned semi-transparent. A foot-high blanket of scarlet flame covered him yet miraculously didn’t burn a single hair.

Lin Qi threw his head back, mouth wide open, but no sound escaped. In that instant, his Soul shattered into countless fragments. It felt like he saw countless flames dancing before his eyes – a whole world made of fire. Endless flames, various flames, extraordinary flames hopped and leaped joyfully before him. Slowly, golden flames twisted into strange symbols – Divine Script. A vast, monumental voice began to chant words, syllable by heavy syllable.

Lin Qi didn’t understand the twisted letters, but as the voice resonated, he instantly grasped their meaning.

These were ancient Divine Script – the language said to be used by Deities. The twisted golden symbols described indescribable Laws – Laws belonging entirely to Fire. Surging heat continuously flooded inside Lin Qi, filling his marrow, bones, Meridians, flesh, blood, and organs. Sweat poured down his body – thick, black, foul-smelling sweat that reeked of decay.

Immense vital energies churned within him. But Lin Qi, controlled by both the incense and his raging male instincts, made zero effort to absorb them using his Mysterious Tiger Force. The vital energies quickly filled his entire body. Yet more poured in, relentless and abundant. With nowhere else to go, these energies were compressed to their absolute limit. They withdrew, surging back into three strange points – his brow, his chest, and his Dantian. Inside these three Apertures, they condensed into weirdly shaped crystals, stored away by a process utterly obscure and undetectable by anyone.

The vast fire tide finally faded. The beauty beneath Lin Qi let out a pitiful whimper before sinking into total oblivion. Her body was deathly white, looking like all life and spirit had fled.

But the ecstasy from that energy transfer had been overwhelming. Primal instinct told Lin Qi it held immense benefits for him. So he abandoned the spent girl beneath him and crawled onto her companion. Again, fury took him. He raged, he plundered. He lost all sense of time. Finally, the woman beneath him arched up against him, taut as a fully stretched bow.

Another roaring tide of heat swept violently upwards. Another wave of immense vital energy filled Lin Qi. His Soul shattered once more. Golden Divine Script twisted and formed endlessly before his sight. The vast chanting voice vibrated through his being, shaking both body and Soul, weaving an unseen, indefinable Law directly into his flesh and bones.

Long Cheng had slipped into the lounge unnoticed. He stood petrified, staring at Lin Qi enveloped in raging flames that curiously burned nothing around him. Long Cheng trembled. He struck his own head repeatedly with furious regret.

“Long Cheng, you fool! You idiot!” he hissed. “You let two strands of Divinity pass you by! Heavens, why did I give them to this kid? Why didn’t I enjoy those beauties myself? That aphrodisiac toxin wasn’t draining their innate Yin energy – it wasn’t substantial anyway! It was forcing out their naturally born Divinity!”

“Whoever set this up did too good a job!” Long Cheng almost wailed. “Two strands of Divinity! And this kid got to enjoy them!”

“Why watch? Why just stand idly by? How could I have been so stupid? How does this happen?”

Long Cheng slapped his own face viciously. Soon, his face swelled up fat as a pig’s head.

“No, it can’t be. This Divinity… I need to pluck it back from him!”

He took a determined step forward. Then his face twisted into an even more agonized grimace.

“Damn it! Once innate Divinity merges with an outsider, they become inseparable!”

“And even if I could break them apart… how could I take it from him? He’s a man! I, Long Cheng, am also a man! How would that…” His voice trailed off in disgust.

Long Cheng looked as bitter as if he’d gulped down a bowl of bile. He crouched miserably on the floor, sighing, his face a sickly green.

After lamenting for a few moments, Long Cheng’s expression suddenly changed again. Fury flared in his eyes as he glanced at the still-unconscious Fat Bird Kirk sprawled on the ground. Kirk had tried to sneak into the lounge earlier and had earned a knockout dose of Long Cheng’s own knockout incense. (Why Long Cheng even had knockout incense… well, only heaven knew). Regardless, Fat Bird Kirk was out cold, apparently the architect of this entire disaster.

Seething with rage, Long Cheng stomped over. He grabbed Fat Bird Kirk by the collar and dragged him roughly towards the door. Long Cheng needed to vent some rage, and Kirk was the perfect punching bag. Judging by Lin Qi’s vigorous efforts visible from the lounge entrance, Long Cheng had plenty of time to deal with this fat pig first.

Lin Qi endured the torrent of energy passively. His body shimmered, now like a transparent red crystal. Immense heat churned inside him. The Divine Spark’s colossal power was tempering his whole being. It was like crude iron being hammered and purified; his body grew harder, stronger, more resilient.

All impurities Lin Qi had carried since birth or gathered since were burned to ash by the two Divine flames of Fire. His flesh was now perfectly clean, utterly pure.

After a prolonged orgy of violence, Lin Qi’s body shuddered violently one last time. The lingering effects of the knockout incense were finally burned away by the inner fire. Awakening at last from his frenzied state, his mind foggy and confused.

Blearily, Lin Qi looked around. He barely registered whatever lay beneath him when a crushing blow slammed into the back of his skull. His eyes rolled back, and darkness swallowed him once more.