Chapter 56: Exploring the Palace (05)

Kael and Seraphine stood still for another moment.

Little by little, the dust kicked up by the fight began to settle, coating the cracked floor in a thin, gray layer.

Seraphine’s eyes were closed, her eyelashes fluttering slightly as she caught her breath.

When her eyes finally opened, they revealed that rosy hue—the same color as the long, silky hair cascading down her back—and immediately turned toward the beast’s corpse.

"Do you think you can clean that one up?" she asked, tilting her head toward the boar. "The hide of this kind of boar is worth a fortune. And the tusks, the blood, and the teeth, too..."

Kael let out a long sigh.

His hand slid down the curve of Seraphine’s back, following the dip of her waist, and gave her butt a light pat.

The plump cheek gave a lazy little wobble beneath the thin fabric, the tremor rolling over to the other side before it faded away.

Seraphine let out a soft gasp of surprise, her body stiffening against his. Before she could complain, Kael leaned in and stole a quick kiss from her lips.

She blinked, the words dying in her throat, and only managed a flustered glare.

His eyes lingered on the boar for a moment, sizing up the thing. Soon, however, they rose and settled on a gigantic door on the horizon.

The two of them stood on a massive platform, perhaps a kilometer from one end to the other, inside an underground chamber whose ceiling easily rose more than five thousand meters high.

Up above, everything vanished into a darkness so deep it looked like the sky on a starless night.

That door seemed to be the only way out.

Kael stared at it a little longer, feeling a strange pressure coming from that direction. Then he turned his back to it, walked over to the boar, rolled up his sleeves, and got to work.

The boar didn’t have metal scales like the snake he had killed before, but that didn’t make the job any easier.

Its bristly hide was as tough as iron, and the fat underneath was so thick the blade barely cut through it.

And, of course, there were still the tusks. They were valuable, but removing them was a nightmare.

In total, it took Kael about five hours to gut the entire beast.

He took out the blood, the eyes, certain specific parts of the bones, and the tusks. All of it could be used in alchemy or to forge weapons and tools, while the hide would make an excellent tapestry.

Besides, even though he had never been a butcher on Earth, Kael knew quite a bit about cutting meat, since he loved barbecue.

Unlike the serpent, this beast had meat that was good to eat—something very useful for high-level cultivators.

Thanks to it’s Qi, the meat didn’t carry the strong, gamey smell of wild boars on Earth. It was red and glossy, marbled with veins of white fat, and so tender that the knife glided through it almost effortlessly.

With a little work, he managed to get more than two metric tons of meat out of it.

All of it was spiritual meat, one of the finest and most expensive kinds of meat in existence.

Simply by eating it, a cultivator would grow stronger, nourishing both their Qi and their body. Some types of spiritual meat even nourished the soul.

Even Selene, who was very wealthy within the sect, ate the meat of Golden Core Realm spiritual beasts two or three times a month at most.

Meat from beasts above that realm was even rarer.

A single carcass from a Spirit Transformation Realm beast could be worth ten years of the Fallen Sword Sect’s entire budget.

Kael had no intention of selling it. For quite some time, at least, the three of them could eat it every day.

By the time he finished cleaning the beast and splitting the meat between his and Seraphine’s space ring, Kael was covered in blood from head to toe.

Luckily, he could cleanse his body with Qi, and he had brought several changes of clothes in case any got ruined.

A wave of energy coursed across his skin, sweeping away the blood and grime as if they were nothing but dust.

Shortly afterward, he was clean again, wearing a beautiful white cloak.

Seraphine changed as well, slipping into her usual pink dress.

Its neckline was a bit too low, leaving the entire upper part of her large breasts exposed. Her skin was soft and creamy, so fair it seemed to glow in the dim light of the chamber.

To keep them from spilling out, the fabric was cut tight, sinking slightly into her flesh and making the soft mounds swell over its edge.

The neckline traced a deep line across her skin, squeezing her breasts together and lifting them slightly, forming a deep, tempting cleavage right in the middle.

"Ready?" Kael asked, letting his eyes linger on those beautiful breasts for another second before turning his gaze back to the gate on the horizon.

Seraphine nodded, her cheeks turning slightly red.

She stepped forward, heading toward the enormous gate.

Her steps were light, but her breasts were anything but. Every time her foot touched the ground, they swayed heavily inside the tight fabric, rising and pressing against the neckline before sinking back down with a slow, full bounce.

Below her slender waist, the dress clung to the round curve of her butt, each stride making it roll softly from side to side.

She looked down, watching the tops of her breasts quiver just below her chin.

Sometimes she wished they were a little smaller. But, as ashamed as she was to admit it, she was enjoying Kael’s gaze on her more and more.

After Lucian died and she discovered that all the love she had been shown was a fraud, her world came crashing down for a moment.

Her affection for the Purewind Family. Her affection for her saviors.

All of it vanished.

It was Kael who stood by her side.

He was the one who caught her as she fell. It was his back that shielded her.

The betrayal hurt, and it still did. But she was happy.

Her heart was at peace.

Seraphine forced a smile onto her face, pushing the memories away before they could drag her back.

Before they knew it, the two of them were standing before the gigantic gate.

Up close, it was even more overwhelming, towering so high that its top was lost in the darkness above.

It seemed to sense their presence at once, shuddering with a deafening crack that echoed throughout the chamber. Then it began to open with a long, deep creak that made the ground tremble beneath their feet.

A warm draft spilled out through the widening gap.

Inside, a sea of golden clouds stretched out before them.