God Of Crafting

Feeling Claire's hug all around me, what else could I do but accept her willingness to help?

'From the looks of things, there seem to be no adverse effects so far,' I thought while observing with utmost and undisturbed focus how the fluctuations of my spiritual energy reached out and fused into Claire's core.

The theory behind this whole concept, even if accidental in execution, was quite solid. We both wielded the powers that should belong to the sixth realm of cultivation before, even if not exactly in the most straightforward way.

The only reason why we could do it with just the prowess of our cores alone was the lack of practice and sufficient spiritual energy to make the leap over the fifth stage's bottleneck.

An energy that we now had in abundance, no, we had so much of it, it was quickly turning pretty damn dangerous! And as weird as it might sound, Claire joined me in the effort and started to establish her own anchors across my flesh, directly adding to the number that my core could discharge too.

In this way, we shared each other cultivation in a sense… which, all by itself, could be considered the reaching the sixth stage of cultivation.

Then, in a moment of absolute genius, I grasped at my scythe again, only to use its internal circuitry not in order for it to be the key of the process, but merely a crutch, a support I could use to make the whole thing somewhat easier.

And so, with Claire wrapped all over my lap and chest, we continued to plant more and more anchors in each other, soon sharing pretty much as much burden as the other.

But the whole process only accelerated. The weight of the spiritual energy only ever increased. At the very least, things got worse at a rather manageable rate, allowing us to get used to the new height of energy before an even stronger current of it would invade our cultivation.

'Wait, can't I just… drop the control?'

Now that I held Claire in my arms, all of my priorities shifted.

Was cleansing the Qi of this place all that important for me to risk not only myself but even Claire?!

On the other hand, however…

'I wonder if Chihiro couldn't join, to absorb some of it…' I thought…

Only to feel Claire shift atop my lap.

'He can't.'

Somehow, a foreign thought invaded my thoughts. Yet, what was even stranger, not even for a second was I confused about who it belonged to.

'The day we first dual cultivated, we synchronized our spirituality. And because it appears to be a first for both of us…' Even though I couldn't really look ahead, Claire's slight shifts over my chest made it clear she ended up looking away. 'It's kind of a cultivator's marital vow…'

While surprised, there was only one way for me to react to those words.

And so, without uttering any myself, I simply tightened my hug over the girl.

It was but a moment of properly showing affection, a single, short instant in which all of our burdens disappeared, vanished into thin air and were replaced by nothing but my warm feelings for this adorable girl.

'It doesn't feel real to just hold you like this…' I thought… easily forgetting how we could apparently share our thoughts.

Which, all in its own right, was yet another topic I had to cram into the back of my head, despite how curious I was just how far we could take this kind of connection.

'But it's all real,' Claire thought back, only for her right hand to move across my spine and then land on the back of my head, only for her to gently caress it. 'So, don't you give up on me now, alright?'

As feeble, tiny, and delicate as Claire felt in my arms right now… she also appeared like a soothing giant, my retreat, the boulder I could draw my strength.

And sappy as it might be, by relaxing a bit, breathing out, and for but a second… letting go, I've somehow managed to overcome the last obstacle that was stopping me from the breakthrough.

It all started when just another increase in the intensity of the backflow of the spiritual energy… brought my core beyond its limit. The limit that I could improve with my focus. So, in a sense, by relaxing, I was effectively allowing my core to go out of control.

Yet, as it happened, rather than collapsing in on itself and shattering into a myriad of pieces I could never regather my core… grew.

In a sudden gust of deeper thought, I've realized that my very attempts at holding this core in place, reining its chaotic nature to keep it under control was exactly what stifled the flames raging inside.

And by holding this energy back for as long as I… No, for as long as the two of us could, we only brought our cores infinitely small bit closer to their limits, given how statistically impossible it was to actually reach it.

And when we let go, our cores simply established themselves within our soul, near-perfectly matching the extent of our flesh.

If one were to compare the anchors to the vents of a steam engine and the core to its burning chamber, then right now, all the walls separating the burning chamber from that piping have broken down, turning the entirety of the control center into just… more of the burning chamber itself.

Within our myriads of anchors, any single one of them could serve the role of a local burning point, only to discharge its energy right away throughout the whole of our now-established cores, only for a dozen anchors that received that energy to repeat the process and feed right back into the loop.

At the same time, the few outside anchors we've managed to establish around us in time received the brunt of the radiation from our now-established cores, pushing those anchors to their very limits… Only to then tear them open and forcefully expand their throughput as more and more spiritual energy flew into the two of us.

'By now, roughly half of the zone's infected Qi was cleansed. That was the good news. But, the bulk of the energy from the purified Qi has yet to actually reach the two of us!

And so, even as we established our cores and changed the very foundation on how our spirituality operated…

We've instantly rushed to consume more and more of this free and pure energy as if we actually planned to reach the seventh stage in one go!

'The problem is,' I thought, breathing a sigh of relief as our new, raised limits finally managed to accommodate all the energy we've gained thus far, giving us a moment to properly breathe and rest. 'I don't really know enough about the seventh stage to figure out any sort of enlightenment for that…'

The current breakthrough was driven by my conversation with Chihiro and all that I've learned about cultivation in the past, along with the experience I… No, the experience the two of us gained while wielding powers of the sixth stage before reaching it.

But when it came to the seventh stage, all I had… was its name.

'Core expansion, huh?' I thought, only to take a deep breath and shift my weight a little to better accommodate for Claire's comfort atop my lap, something I suddenly noticed I could sense… somehow.

'But isn't this exactly what we just did?'