章 19: Graceless return
'What the hell was that?!'
Rushing through the streets, Claire could hardly keep enough attention on the road not to clash with any of the civilians that stood in her way. Thankfully, the late hour of the early night made it so that there were only a few pedestrians here and there on the pavement, not only saving her from a fat lawsuit from running into someone at her speed but also the embarrassment… of running into someone with her cheeks burning red.
'What?!'
'WHAT?!'
Claire's chest tingled, only for a cold breeze to run all the way up her spine.
'WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!'
Sure, it was one thing for a cultivator like her to make use of such a golden opportunity to cultivate. An opportunity even better than what she encountered when she first entered Tim's room.
An opportunity consisting of not only the thick aura of QI in the air produced by this insane device of his but also of all the other things that pretty much came to face her one by one like some sort of silly reveal in a poorly written story of an author who just couldn't help but give in to his excitement and drop the big plot points one by one super-early into the story!
The thick aura of Qi in the room was just one thing. The overwhelmingly potent Qi that she ended up sucking out of Tim's system was another.
But the way his Qi circulated through his body without even the slightest shred of guidance…
'HOW THE HELL?!'
At this point, Claire wasn't even sure if she should be amazed, stunned, jealous, or scared.
The proper cultivation routine that she worked so hard for, had to earn merit with her father to get her hands on a manual and then spared no effort to practice…
All of it was nothing when compared to the routine that guy did without even thinking about it.
No!
He did it without even being aware of the fact that he was doing it!
No, that wasn't even it yet!
HE DID IT WHILE NOT EVEN CONSCIOUS!!
Claire slowed down her steps only to…
"Aargh!" she released a groan so full of stifled anger and other emotions, that she just couldn't help but slam her fist into the wall of some innocent building that just was unlucky enough to be nearby. And she did so with enough strength for her fist to actually sink into the concrete, breaking off a considerable chunk of it.
"Ha… ha… haaa…." Claire breathed heavily, doing her best to let all of those stifled emotions go along with her breath.
Just like with cultivation, she made sure to properly circulate her breath through her body, getting herself as close to the state of meditation as she could before actually doing so, all in a bid to calm her emotions down.
'What the hell was I even doing?!'
She could still feel the warmth of Tim's body that she so tightly pressed herself against. Her crotch could still remember the sensation of his hard-on pressing against it as she herself loosened and warmed up in the process of sucking that guy's excessive Qi.
She could still remember the adorable blush on his face as he recovered his consciousness and realized the state the two of them were in. The face he made when forced to react to it in some way or form has burned into her memory, threatening to appear whenever she would close her eyes or even let her thoughts wander.
Looking to the side, Claire hung her eyes on the hole in the wall of her own making and her fist that rested within that hole. The fist that she then brought closer to her eyes and pried open… Only to see the intricately crafted silvery wing that Tim offered her in exchange for all her troubles.
'What the fuck was that, man?' Claire nearly cried out, staring at the ring made from what was supposed to be crude and cheap materials… only to radiate the kind of aura she's only ever experienced in artifacts back at her father's main shop, objects that were worth easily many times the worth of everything that she stocked her own shop with!
Torn by all the feelings that she failed to properly curb, Claire stared at the ring in the palm of her hand for a while… Only to follow a sudden impulse and slip the ring on her finger.
"Ah!" A slight moan escaped the girl's lips as her body relaxed nearly to the point of just crumbling down onto the walkway.
But it wasn't all!
The Qi around her suddenly grew thicker, as if she simply couldn't perceive its thickness before, growing nearly to the level of what she'd experienced back at Tim's place.
Those two aspects alone were enough to make this ring into the treasure of her family, an object worthy of putting on the golden shelf of her father's shop, something just to be displayed for the sake of her clan's pride rather than sold to anyone, regardless of the prize offered.
But…
There always had to be some sort of a caveat. And when it came to this ring…
'Wha…'
"Aaaah…" A sweet moan escaped Claire's lips when she suddenly felt her chest tighten while her entire body filled with a strange sense of bliss as if a thousand hands caressed it all over. Not even her chest of crotch was an exception, making the girl feel like she could just dual cultivate with the entire world around her right at this moment.
And if all of that wasn't enough…
This feeling of warmth, relaxation, intimate touch… It all was somehow etched with the very essence she grew to know the taste of when she sucked at the corner of Tim's neck!
"Huff… huff… huff…"
Desperate not to make an even bigger laughing stock out of herself while right out in the open, Claire breathed heavily while struggling to move her hand… And tear the ring off her finger, freeing herself from…
'What exactly was that supposed to be?' the girl thought, holding herself upright with just the last of her will… While simultaneously having to suffer the realization that the world around her suddenly turned all bleak, gray, deprived of warmth, and undeserving of her interest.
'Am I reacting like that because it's a new feeling, or…'
Claire's crotch tingled, only for her knees to instantly gravitate towards each other, making her seem like someone desperately holding their pee back.
Thankfully, between her rush and then the sudden switch to an extremely slow walk, she pretty much managed to reach her goal. And while it wasn't the comfortable safety of her own shop, her own kingdom where not even her father could intrude lightly… It was still her clan's mansion, a place where she would find the safety and privacy of her own room and the protection of the tens of disciples who would give a limb or two if it meant earning a favor with her or her father.
Still, as much as she wanted to just go through the gates and hide herself in her room to give herself some time to properly process everything that happened…
"Young miss!" One of the two disciples standing guard at the clan mansions' gate rushed forth the very moment he saw her. "To see you return home so late…" the young man continued, blissfully unaware of just how much Claire wanted to just claw his eyes… No, his entire face out. "Did anyone give you any trouble on your way back?!"
Just this shout alone was enough to attract the attention of the other disciple by the gate… and then a few more of the one's training on the outer courtyard of the mansion.
"It's nothing, just let me through," Claire snapped, pushing the man's concerned hand away as she moved past him… Only to stop as soon as she stepped inside the protective embrace of the formations of her clan's mansion. "Actually, go and tell my father I need to meet him. Just… Just not now. For now," Claire averted her eyes before picking up her pace as she walked towards the mansion proper, "for now, I need to get some rest."
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