Divine Convenience Store-Chapter 505 - 505: Bringing Order to Chaos

Although he said it like that, Lin Mo never planned to hold her indecently. At least, not at the moment when something more important was at hand, and with his current cultivation, all he could do was assist her in using the benefits of the hot spring to stabilize the raging tempest within her dantian.
Now that he had gotten her permission, Lin Mo's arms looped to her front before gently pressing on her navel and slightly sliding it lower to where her dantian should be located.
Her skin was scalding to the touch, not from the water, but from the feverish heat of her chaotic spiritual energy.
"Breath, Caiyin," He whispered. The way he called her changed as per her request. "This still hinges on you. My starlight qi that I will be injecting is nothing but a support to you. It is this spring's water that will help you temporarily give order to your chaos. Whether or not that will be enough for your breakthrough, we still have no idea. However, calming the symptoms down is a good start."
He closed his eyes, activating his [Stellar Domain]. But this time, instead of expanding it outwards to suppress an enemy, he condensed it, wrapping it tightly around Xun Caiyin like a cocoon of starlight. The ten-meter radius shrank to mere inches, intensifying its effects a hundredfold. The serene, orderly law of the stars pressed against Xun Caiyin's chaotic aura, not to crush it, but to contain it.
His [Vein of the Silent Stream] hummed as he recalled the methods outlined in his [Starflow Meditation Manual] for channeling his purified starlight qi into her open spirit channels.
"Open your gates, Caiyin. Let me in."
Xun Caiyin shuddered as a gasp escaped her lips when she dropped her internal defenses.
The moment she did, Lin Mo felt it.
Her spiritual sea seemed to have transformed into a deluge of toxic sludge, like a corrosive tsunami of a thousand different venoms fighting for dominance. Viper essence clashed with centipede bile and necrotic rot warred with paralytic neurotoxins.
It was a mess. A powerful yet deadly mess that was slowly eating away at the vessel containing it.
If any other Foundation Establishment cultivator had dared to connect their spiritual sea to this, they would have dissolved into a puddle of goo in seconds.
But Lin Mo was different.
His [Perfect Foundation], forged in the celestial tribulation, acted as an immutable anchor. Perhaps Liu Xiaoyu's Nine Heavens Exquisite Body could achieve the same result. However, it would be akin to her lowering her mounted pride to ask another woman for help.
Eventually, his starlight qi didn't continue into her dantian. Instead, he had it stay on her spirit channels, opening the path for the spring's water to flood in.
Obviously, it wasn't the physical water, but the refined, healing essence extracted by the divine-grade formation maintaining the pool.
"Guide it," Lin Mo softly muttered as his voice became tight with concentration. "I'm certain you're more experienced on this than I am but use my voice as an anchor to keep your thoughts at bay."
Xun Caiyin gritted her teeth and nodded. Her head fell back onto his shoulder.
A bead of violet sweat rolled down her neck but he picked up on a small smile peeking out of her lips, "This audacious one understands, Lin Mo. The order… it feels like ice in my veins. Can you hold me tighter?"
For her to be acting like this, he understood that she had it under her control. But since they're already in this situation, he decided to indulge her a bit.
"Caiyin, you're gonna end up owing me this time." Upon saying that, his palms pressed firmer against her abdomen, his embrace tightening just enough to ground her trembling form against his chest without restricting the flow of energy.
"Consider it added to my tab," Xun Caiyin gasped as the elegant curve of her neck and the silky mountains that seemed to float from the water became exposed to him despite the steam-filled air. "Just... don't let go."
Lin Mo didn't answer with words. He simply nodded and used all his will to restrain his gradually loosening reason to not indulge in her natural allure.
He closed his eyes and started visualizing the chaotic, poisonous sludge within her, watching as the spring water brought order into her chaotic spiritual sea and throbbing core.
.
Slowly but surely, the refined essence of the Celestial Hot Spring became a coolant as it flooded her overheated channels, soothing the burns left by years of aggressive poison cultivation.
Where the viper essence hissed and bit, the water calmed it. Where the necrotic rot tried to wither her own flesh, the starlight reinforced it.
It was an exhausting, microscopic battle of attrition. And since he was also using his starlight qi as a pipe while holding her this close to him, Lin Mo felt his own spiritual reserves draining at a terrifying rate at the same time as poisonous essences seemed to be flushed out of her system.
At this point, he realized that stabilizing a peak Core Formation expert's deviations was far more taxing than fighting a squad of Vindicators. But then again, any man would probably be delighted to hold someone as enchanting as her, even if the circumstances were life-threatening.
Her back was smooth against his chest, her curves fitting against him in a way that tested his resolve far more than the tribulation lightning ever did.
"Focus, Lin Mo," He chided himself internally. "If you get distracted now, she explodes, you explode, and the store loses its best customer and its manager. Bad for business."
He shoved the distracting thoughts into a mental box and locked it tight. And then, he doubled down on his channeling. The [Stillwater Body] ability he had gained allowed him to act as a perfect pipe as he siphoned the excess, violent heat from her body and dissipated it into the water around them.
The pool began to bubble and hiss, the water turning a murky, bruised purple as it absorbed the spiritual toxins he was helping her purge.
And as minutes stretched into an hour, he felt a shift.
The violent churning within her dantian began to slow. The conflicting toxins, previously fighting for dominance, began to separate and settle into distinct layers. The heavy, earthen poisons sank to the bottom. The volatile, fiery toxins rose to the top. The fluid, water-based venoms flowed in a steady current between them.
Order was emerging from chaos.
Xun Caiyin's breathing, previously ragged and shallow, deepened. The feverish heat radiating from her skin cooled to a comfortable warmth.
"Hah. This is... beautiful," She whispered, her eyes still closed, lost in the internal vision of her own spiritual sea. "I never knew my spiritual sea could look like this. It was always a battlefield. Now... it's like a seamless ocean."
"I guess that is the foundation you needed, Caiyin." Lin Mo murmured with his voice a little hoarse from exertion. "It became a stable structure upon which you can build your Nascent Soul. The vessel has been reinforced for the birth of your soul."
He slowly withdrew his starlight qi, carefully untangling his energy from hers to avoid a backlash.
As his aura receded, he felt a momentary sense of loss from her, a spiritual yearning to remain connected to his stability.
But she didn't cling. She was a Venom Master, a woman of immense pride and power. Now that the immediate danger was past, her own strength returned.
She took a deep breath, and the water around them rippled. A profound, violet light began to glow from within her body, illuminating the water from beneath the surface.
Inside her dantian, the scene was apocalyptic. The amalgamation of a thousand poisons was a swirling nebula of black, green, and purple sludge, tearing at the walls of her foundation. The Core, a cracked and unstable sphere of solidified venom, was spinning erratically, threatening to shatter into useless dust.
"Indeed. I sense that I can calmly face the Soul Storm this way. Shopkeeper, this has been a truly enlightening experience." With a soft chuckle, the violet light receded as she glanced up at him. "Shall we take a proper bath now?"
Lin Mo wryly smiled, understanding what she was hinting at.
"A tempting offer, Caiyin. Truly." He gently extricated himself from her. "However, I believe we have prioritized the 'business' aspect enough for this. I have demonstrated the effect of our facility's special amenity with proper service. If we indulge in a 'proper bath' now, I fear your newfound stability might unravel into a different kind of chaos. It's something you won't be able to get out of."
Was he running away? Probably but in his head, he's simply taking a step back without crossing any line yet. It was a wonderful experience for him too. Furthermore, it's not like he hadn't gained anything. He could feel a slight progress in his own cultivation. Unfortunately, he had been here for too long already… If he extended that, Liu Xiaoyu or Wu Meiyu would probably be suspicious.
Xun Caiyin pouted, a genuine expression of disappointment that made her look less like a terrifying poison mistress and more like a spurned maiden.
Nevertheless, there's a glint of intelligent understanding and amusement in her eyes.
Venom Master Xun expected his answer. And she's willing to take a slow approach to fray into his defenses. At the very least, she's now a step ahead of others.