Chapter 839: Magic session with Clara (extended)
Chapter 839: Magic session with Clara (extended)
At first it only moved aside to make room for the denser current. Then, almost tentatively, a portion of her energy rose to meet his.
The two forces touched.
Clara expected resistance or fight. Instead they blended at the edges… her mature power mixing with the startling purity of his.
The sensation was intimate in a way that had nothing to do with ordinary touch. It felt as if someone had reached into the private center of her cultivation and been welcomed there.
Then…
some of her mana began to flow outward along the same channel he was using.
The reverse current was gentle, almost polite. A portion of her energy slipped back through the connection at her shoulders and into his hands.
Clara tensed at the loss and her instinct whispered her to close the pathway and reclaim what was hers. Yet the moment the thought formed, she realized the exchange felt perfectly natural. The outflow did not weaken her. It balanced the river pouring in, creating a circuit rather than a one-sided invasion. Her core remained full. If anything, the circulating motion seemed to refine both energies as they passed each other.
This is how it is supposed to feel, she thought dimly. Shared.
The realization unsettled her more than the physical sensations. She had come into this room prepared to judge and remain distant. She had not expected her own cultivation to respond with such open hunger. The river of his mana continued to move, filling every major meridian until her entire upper body hummed with shared power. Heat gathered low in her abdomen. Her breathing had grown soft and open. The silk of her gown clung lightly to the dampness forming along her collarbones.
Julian’s hands remained steady on her shoulders. He neither rushed nor retreated. He simply maintained the flow, letting the river run its course while she sat within it, caught between wariness and a growing surrender to the pure current moving through her.
Clara’s eyes had fallen half-closed. She was no longer staring at the wall. Her awareness had turned inward, tracking every shift of the mana as it circulated. The initial distrust had not vanished, but it had been pushed to the edges of her mind by the simple, overwhelming fact of how good the exchange felt. Her vessels continued to ask for more. Her core pulsed in time with the rhythm he set. And through it all, the silent return of her own mana into his hands continued without resistance.
The demonstration was no longer theoretical.
It was happening inside her body, moment by moment, and she could not deny the truth of what she felt.
Julian spoke once more.
“This is only the beginning of the circuit. When you are ready, I can deepen it.”
Clara did not answer with words. A soft, unsteady breath left her instead. Her hands remained tight on the arms of the chair, but she no longer tried to pull away from the warmth of his palms.
The transfer continued.
*
Julian took her silence as acceptance.
He did not ask again. The faint pressure on her shoulders increased by the smallest degree, and the river of mana flowing into her body deepened. The change was only a fraction stronger than before, yet the effect on Clara was immediate and overwhelming.
The moment the richer current entered her meridians, a sharp, bright sensation raced down her spine. Her back arched slightly against the chair and a raw, unfiltered sound tore from her throat before she could stop it.
“Ahhh…”
The moan was loud in the quiet room. It startled even her. Clara’s eyes flew open. Panic flared hot in her chest. She clamped her mouth shut at once, but the damage was already done. The sound had escaped. Her heart hammered so violently she thought it might burst completely.
I cannot believe I just did that.
Shame flooded her. She was a countess, a married woman, a mother. She had not come here to make noises like that under a young man’s hands. The humiliation burned almost as fiercely as the mana itself. Yet even as the thought formed, her body continued to react without her permission.
Her skin felt feverish.
However, the real transformation was taking place inside her body.
When Clara had arrived at the Astran Duchy she stood at the early stage of the Sovereign realm. The breakthrough from Supreme to Sovereign had been recent, and was still settling in her sea of consciousness.
She had expected years of refinement before she could even approach the middle stage of Sovereign Realm. Yet under the deepened river of Julian’s mana, her cultivation was climbing with impossible speed. The barriers that should have required patient grinding were softening like wax under flame.
Her core expanded. She could feel herself approaching the upper edge of the early Sovereign stage already. It was a progress that should have taken four or five years of dedicated effort.
How is this possible?
The question repeated itself in her mind with rising disbelief. One session. A single exchange that had lasted only minutes, and she had already gained what most cultivators would bleed for over half a decade.
This cannot be real. No inheritance should be capable of this. If techniques like this existed, the entire hierarchy of the kingdom would have collapsed long ago. Yet I can feel it. I can feel myself rising.
Another wave of his mana rolled through her. Clara’s breath fractured into short, uneven pulls. She bit down harder on her lip to keep any sound from escaping, but soft, broken noises still slipped out between her clenched teeth. Her body was on fire from the inside. Every pathway glowed.
She was close.
The threshold to the middle stage of the Sovereign realm hovered just ahead of her. She could sense the barrier clearly now. It was thin and trembling under the pressure of the charged energy.
One more strong surge would be enough to break it.
The knowledge sent a wild, almost desperate hunger through her. After years of slow, careful progress, the chance to leap forward in a single afternoon was intoxicating. Her fingers dug into the chair. Her head tipped back slightly. The last of her resistance was fraying under the sheer force of what her body was experiencing.
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