Soulbound: Dual Cultivation

Lucas let the silence linger a moment longer, the thrum of their joined souls still pulsing faintly between them. He looked at each of them in turn, his eyes firm but not unkind, and finally broke the stillness with a voice that carried both authority and warmth.

"You can feel it, can't you?" he said, resting his hands lightly on his knees. "The way the bond doesn't just sit within you but flows, carrying strength from one to the other. That connection is not a thing to waste. Right now the bond is fresh, alive, and my Yang energy is still flowing through your meridians. If you seize that momentum, if you breathe with it and guide it, you'll find your cultivation far smoother than it has ever been."

Nyx gave a small nod, her eyes closing halfway as if she had already begun to sense the truth of his words. "It's like the walls I always fight against are softer," she murmured. "I can see where to push. I can see how near the next step is."

Selene leaned back slightly, her arms crossing even as her cheeks remained flushed. "So you want us to just sit and cultivate right here?" she asked with the tone of someone trying to disguise eagerness with reluctance. "After all this wine and…fucking?"

Lucas smiled faintly, shaking his head at her dramatics. "You always look for excuses, Selene. But cultivation isn't something that waits for your perfect moment. The stronger you get, the more you'll learn that. Breakthroughs come when the body, the spirit, and the energy align. Tonight, the alignment is here whether you're ready or not. If you let it slip, you might not feel this same clarity again for months."

Lira had been quiet, her hands folded in her lap, but she finally looked up and spoke softly, "He's right. The energy is still moving through me like a stream, warm and steady. I don't want to waste it either." She paused, her eyes meeting Lucas's. "Will you be cultivating too?"

"Of course," Lucas replied, and there was no jest in his tone. "I've reached the third stage of the Master Rank, but that is only the beginning. There is a long climb ahead of me, and if I sit idle while the rest of you grow, then I'll be failing in my promise to protect and guide you. We move together, and we rise together."

The words settled over them with a gravity that silenced even Selene. She bit her lip and then finally gave in with a shrug, muttering, "Fine, but if I get a headache from this, I'm blaming you."

"You won't," Lucas said calmly, his gaze steady. "The bond will keep the flow balanced. Trust it."

He gestured to the circle they had already formed, their knees nearly touching, their hands still close enough to reach. "We will remain as we are. The circle is strong. Close your eyes, draw in the breath, and let the bond guide the Qi. Do not fight it, do not twist it. Let it show you where your strength is meant to grow."

Nyx straightened, her eyes already closed as she inhaled deeply, her face composed with a calm determination. Lira mirrored her, her hands resting lightly on her thighs, her breathing slow and deliberate. Selene hesitated only a heartbeat longer before she too closed her eyes, though her posture carried her usual hint of impatience.

Lucas looked at them once more, feeling the quiet pride rise in his chest. "Good. Hold on to that focus," he said. Then, with his own breath drawing deep into his lungs, he let his eyelids fall shut and turned inward. He could feel it immediately...the pulse of the bond, the current of his Yang energy resonating through them, and the immense reservoir of Qi that he still needed to refine.

Lucas settled deeper into himself as he drew his breath inward, the stillness of cultivation wrapping around him like a cloak. His dantian pulsed with power, firm and expansive, and his meridians carried the surging current of Qi like rivers swollen after a storm. They were no longer fragile or obstructed as they had once been when he first awoke in this body. They had become tempered, strong, and supple enough to hold the weight of his ambitions. In that quiet space within, he felt the familiar tug, the call of the next great threshold. It was the edge of the Grandmaster realm, and he knew well what kind of leap it required.

He was not ignorant of the dangers. Breaking through to the Grandmaster stage was no small feat. It was a mountain few ever climbed in their lifetime, and even among the gifted, countless fell short. But Lucas had something rare coursing through him now...something that tilted the scales in his favor. The Yin energies of the women bound to him, braided together with his own Yang, gave his cultivation a depth and vigor that was utterly unnatural. The bond strengthened him, carrying his soul higher, pressing his Qi sharper, more refined.

The girls felt it too. Though their own focus was bent inward, they could sense the sudden shift in Lucas, like the air in the circle had grown heavy with power. Their bond made it impossible to miss. Lira was the first to realize what it meant, her eyes flickering open in startled recognition before she quickly shut them again, hiding her reaction so as not to disturb him. Nyx's breathing caught, a small shiver running down her spine as she understood he was standing before a wall most cultivators dreaded to touch. Selene too could feel the way his presence thickened, the way the bond seemed to hum as if the very circle of their souls were straining to keep pace with him.

They exchanged no words, not daring to break the sanctity of the moment, but in their hearts the same thought rippled like a wave. He was trying for the Grandmaster realm. He was doing it here and now.

The three of them sat in silence, their expressions betraying fragments of disbelief, yet not one of them voiced it. They were slowly learning that with Lucas, disbelief was wasted breath. Time and time again he had stood where others faltered. Time and time again he had turned the impossible into his path forward. They did not understand how he did it, and perhaps they never would, but the pattern was clear. He was not bound by the limits that caged others. He was Lucas. And Lucas did the impossible as though it were simply his way of breathing.

They swallowed their astonishment, kept their voices still, and returned their focus inward, quietly feeding their cultivation while waiting to see if he would indeed take the leap into a realm most men only dreamed of touching.