Shen Xu adjusted his condition for three months after going into seclusion.

On this day, he removed a bottle from his storage ring, opened it and poured the contents into a jade plate.

The contents were one and a half drops of chaos water.

At a glance, the chaos water looked like a blob of ordinary water. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

However, on closer look, one could see countless colours and wonders within the water.

’As expected of chaos water.’ Shen Xu thought and formed hand gestures, causing the chaos water to rise and flow towards him.

When the chaos water entered his dantian, Shen Xu felt a wave of heat starting from his spiritual root and flowing to the rest of his body.

Before long, he felt like his body was on fire and even had the illusion of smelling burnt flesh.

However, the double didn’t dwell on his discomfort.

Instead, he continued refining the chaos water and didn’t stop until the jade plate was empty.

At this time, Shen Xu opened his eyes, looked at his body and subconsciously frowned.

"I smell terrible." He muttered and hastily stood.

Soon after, he prepared a bathtub of spiritual water and lay down to wash his body.

"I wonder how Ayuan is doing." He muttered but didn’t actively probe their Taoist contract for fear of disturbing his husband.

After washing and changing into a set of clean clothes, Shen Xu calculated the time and realised that he had already been in retreat for seventy thousand space years, equivalent to more than two thousand real years.

’I didn’t expect that refining one and a half drops of chaos water would take so much time.’ He thought and sighed.

Fortunately, the chaos water lived up to his expectations.

After refining the treasure, his spiritual root was wider and purer, his chaos flame physique was also purer, and his comprehension ability was better.

Generally, Shen Xu’s talent had improved tenfold, which was saying much since his original talent was already monstrous.

Shen Xu didn’t begin cultivating his qi after improving his talent.

Instead, he began cultivating his soul.

First, he refined the soul stones, soul water, soul nourishing dew, and soul fish. As a result, his soul cultivation rose from level eight to the early-stage of level nine.

When that was done, he ate a soul nourishing fruit and began to slowly refine it.

Sixty thousand space years passed in the blink of an eye.

During that time, Shen Xu refined eight soul nourishing fruits and advanced his soul cultivation to the early stage of level ten.

At the same time, he sensed that his soul was about to transform but the opportunity was a little lacking.

’I need to refine more fruits.’ He thought, but unfortunately, he had already refined all the fruits in his storage ring.

"The soul nourishing tree should have borne fruit a few times while I was in seclusion. Should I get more fruits from Xiaoren to continue refining my soul?" He wondered, but soon decided against it.

After all, his soul cultivation had already advanced to level ten and didn’t have much room for growth while they were still in the cultivation world.

Since he couldn’t continue cultivating his soul, Shen Xu adjusted his state of mind and began cultivating his qi.

After Yang Shi and the others broke through, they fed back some cultivation to the double, and he could have broken through to level eight a long time ago.

However, Shen Xu had his own ideas and sealed the cultivation, forcibly suppressing the breakthrough.

At this time, he unsealed the cultivation and his level soared from the peak stage of the fusion realm to the peak stage of the Mahayana realm.

Sensing the improvement, Shen Xu smiled and nodded with a satisfied expression.

A moment later, he took out some cloud seeking fruits and other qi cleansing treasures and began purifying his cultivation.

Time passed, and when the double was satisfied with his qi’s purity, he took out the glaze meteorite fire and used it to nourish his spiritual root fire.

In this way, Shen Xu refined the fire, the heavenly bamboo dew extracted from the heavenly knots purple bamboo, golden rock milk and other treasures before successfully pushing his cultivation to the peak-stage of the tribulation transcending realm.

When that was done, he refined some stone milk, golden rock milk, golden body pills, and his last two drops of immortal marrow.

As a result, his cultivation solidified and not a trace of vainness could be detected.

’I have already been retreating for eight thousand real years.’ He thought and sighed.

Shen Xu originally planned to refine everything, including a rootless colourful water lily petal, within five thousand real years.

However, he planned well, but reality was different.

At this time, Shen Xu felt that he had retreated too long and wasn’t in the right state of mind to refine a rootless colourful water lily petal.

In addition to the petal, he hadn’t refined the bodhi fruits or contracted the hidden colour crystal.

’I will advance first and then retreat again after a few years.’ He decided and stood.

Soon after, he left his training room and walked to Zhen Yuan’s room.

However, Zhen Yuan was still practising, and the double had no choice but to go back with a disappointed expression.

.....

Zhen Yuan’s cultivation was originally higher than Shen Xu’s.

Although he didn’t have contracts to aid his cultivation, his talent was extraordinary, and he could have gone out of seclusion earlier than Shen Xu.

However, just when his cultivation advanced to the peak-stage of the tribulation transcending realm, Zhen Yuan suddenly fell into enlightenment.

This enlightenment was different.

First, it didn’t clarify any of the laws that he couldn’t understand.

Instead, it felt more like a revelation and in the dream, he learned the conditions for his ascension.

’So, it’s like this.’ He muttered and frowned.

However, he soon felt that the conditions were reasonable, and he nodded, dispelling the dream.

"It seems I will need to work harder if I want to ascend." He muttered, took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

A breath later, he smiled and ran out to see the lover that he hadn’t seen for almost two hundred and fifty thousand space years.