"Han Chen, what happened??"
"Well..." He didn't respond right away, studying them carefully.
But the women could feel their changes immediately. Like they had these extra controls over their own bodies, and their flexibility was just... off the charts. Felt a bit taller, hips a little wider, that inherent weakness they'd always felt and carried - gone. They felt like they were back to being children, when they had that absolute strength to weight control over their bodies and that sense of power and liveliness. They pressed their fingers against their palms and felt like they could actually pierce through things with raw strength. With the new memory of cultivation basics, they felt renewed sense of comprehension of themselves immediately. Their response times had improved too, beyond what you'd normally get from a martial arts realm upgrade.
Especially Hye Won - she felt like she'd jumped an entire realm. "Did I reach the legendary realm of martial arts? no ... hmm I know it?" she asked, like she was trying to make sense of the outside world and extra knowledge in her soul.
"No, same realm but... I uplifted your physique and gave you some upgrades. You still need to cultivate.." He smoothly replied.
"What upgrades?" Yue Lan asked. "Wait, is it just me or are my thoughts flowing more freely?"
"I didn't change your conscious identity or who you are, but..." He gestured vaguely. "The physical evolution I mentioned earlier - your base strength now exceeds that of any normal land dwelling organism couple that with extreme flexibility and control.
Your reaction speed is heightened, and your body regenerates and heals at an accelerated rate. Your biological autonomy has improved beyond previous limitations. Earth's evolutionary path is only beginning to explore so the flaws are there in the process of creating things that just works; I have rectified them. And… well, congratulations. You are now the....maybe not, but nearly same species as I am."
"I can feel my changes internally... like there's this new sense that formed, based on instinct, over any qi mechanism happening in me," Hye Won said, her voice trailing off as she tried to make sense of it.
"I feel like I have the same conditions those bio-enhancer users reported. And I also see, like... well, there were so many flaws in what I trained before, from what you taught us. It feels better now," Yue Lan added, though her stomach suddenly interrupted with a loud grumble.
"God, I feel like I could eat an entire cow right now," Hye Won expressed, her own hunger hitting her. "How much time has passed? I ate just a few hours ago... wait, how long did this process take? And why do I feel like my clothes are all sweaty and gross?"
"Well, I cleaned your bodies intermittently, but not your clothes. I've been here with you for over a year..." Han Chen started, then seeing their jaws drop and the questions forming, he quickly added while giving them a new set of clothes, "Don't worry - only a few hours have passed in the outside world. Time flows differently here."
The girls were stunned. "Yet another mystery our genius kept to himself," Hye Won huffed, while Yue Lan had this look like - are you kidding me, you can slow time????
Han Chen pulled delicious food from his storage ring - he'd prepared it using spiritual fruits and meat from a spirit animal he'd hunted in the small world during their year-long process.
The flavors and aroma were creating all sorts of pleasure on their taste buds, and Han Chen's cooking - which they both knew was absolutely out of this world - was making them practically have a food-induced euphoria. Given their hunger, they ate their fill. A few moments to relax.
Seeing they were ready, Han Chen asked them to prepare for the next stage. "Close your eyes and sense the spiritual energy. Circulate it with your instincts - the 'spiritual martial arts route' for Yue Lan, and according to the foundation building technique I taught you before, Hye Won."
The girls forgot their questions and simply followed their lover's request. The spiritual energy - they could sense it very well now.
Both began their cultivation. Yue Lan, within two hours, reached the next stage of grandmaster realm. She could meditate better now, and from the refined energy, she corrected her own previous training flaws using that newly acquired internal sense.
For Hye Won, ... she was stepping into completely wild territory.
Yue Lan asked to leave and test her strength. He showed her a simple training room with formation-enforced walls that displayed impact metrics almost magically. While she was gone, Hye Won continued her progression.
Her meridians burned as purified qi flooded her body from the yin-yang spirit root. For the first time, she felt everything internally - her senses just... blown up. She felt her soul, like a weight attached to the shen acupoint. Gradually, changes happened as she ran the qi using the technique Han Chen had given her and taught her before.
The Radiant Lotus Canon—this technique that harmonized the three cultivation treasures: jing (essence), qi (energy), and shen (spirit). Han Chen had simplified it down from his-level complexity into something Yue Lan could actually digest. The philosophy? Well, it's like a lotus growing from muddy waters—root in the physical body, stem in energy refinement, petals representing awakened meridians, and the blossom being true harmony between everything.
Because of their soul-corridor connection, Yue Lan and Hye Won in future could share this metaphysical link between their spiritual lotuses. It's passive, but allows subtle resonance—shared insights, instinctive qi balancing, harmonizing excess yin and yang. When they both cultivate together, these corridors can form the Yin-Yang Confluence Pool during, uh, intimate dual cultivation sessions.
With Han Chen's help, she created this ephemeral qi structure in her soul that gradually rooted in her dantian. The circulation completely shifted from martial refinement to true cultivation. A lotus foundation prototype started materializing, eventually merging her spirit and essence.
Eventually, it merged her spirit and essence. The process was... God, it was excruciating, but she endured because she now knew from the transferred knowledge that this was just part of the process.
When Yue Lan returned, Han Chen explained what was happening as an example for her future progression. A day passed—qi refining, essence tempering, spirit awakening, all the steps completing. Then something shifted. Her qi awareness changed from just feeling to actually seeing her internal self. She was overjoyed - although not as detailed and, um, scary as Han Chen's abilities, this was hers.
But as her awareness expanded, she soon realized she could now see out of her body and even Han Chen smiling and waving at her a meter in front, even with her eyes closed. Spirit sense had stepped into that final transformation. Time for the next step.
The purified energies spiraled and intertwined to form a complete embryonic foundation - a yin-yang dao lotus foundation. Han Chen stepped in, making some esoteric adjustments to her controls in the subtleties, but she could feel her strength growing massively. Almost... scarily so.
Two more days passed, and she had stepped into Foundation Building realm. The new life essence within her was ridiculously high - she now knew her lifespan almost reached 500 years or more.
Spending a loving and grateful moment with Han Chen, she went to the testing room and saw Yue Lan's impact metric as 0.78. She used a boxing technique and punched with her maximum power, the numbers lit up showing 2.76 units. " Han Chen show me what you got" she asked curiously.
Han Chen exhaled, settling into stance. Then, like a thunderclap condensed into motion, he struck, used his own maximum as a combination of spirit will and physical power enforced by cultivation, and slammed into the testing wall. It didn't even bulge but perfectly absorbed, and the numbers lit up: 230.13 units. "Roughly ten tonnes per unit on Earth gravity. Sustained capacity would be 85% of this. So, you get the sense" while rolling his shoulders.
The ladies took a moment of... well, stunned silence, exchanged glances, then realized this belonged to none other than their own man. Even when they found pride in their own power, ridiculous compared to martial artists, Han Chen just... he humbled them with his even more ridiculous power level compared to their own.
He smiled and said, "Time to go." The trio disappeared from where they were and appeared in the room inside the company. A sudden scream. Looking up, he found Sophia staring at them like she was seeing ghosts.
Well, before Han Chen could move, Hye Won was already behind her. Based on her knowledge, certain acupoints were pressed. "Just sleep," Hye Won murmured, and Sophia went unconscious.
"No need to tamper with her mind, Han Chen. She'll feel ridiculous after waking up thinking about it." She didn't like the idea of modifying people like a tool especially those she knows.
"Whatever you say." He didn't mind.
The scream had alerted some staff who came to fetch her, and upon seeing some heavy-weight figures in the room, they immediately arranged for Sophia to rest. She woke up half an hour later, and seeing them, she pointed and said, "I saw you appear like ghosts..."
"Seriously, Sophia, you're overworking these days. Add to that the trauma from the previous kidnapping case... you're seeing things. We were in the room discussing things and then you barged in, eyes wide, screaming, and fell unconscious," Yue Lan replied.
Dr. Sophia began to doubt herself. " Take a rest for the rest of the day, you can work tomorrow"
After that incident, the trio went back and saw that nearly a day had passed in the outside world. This time Yue Lan went with Han Chen to his villa. All three had a bath and slept there, refreshed themselves. Han Chen explained the reason for the absence of spiritual energy other than the array and the need to preserve it in their bodies.
Life returned to its normal rhythm, and a month passed. Han Chen received an unexpected news from his parents. While he was pondering over its implications, then Hye Won and Yue Lan showed up at Han Chen's front door to question him, saying they doubted they were pregnant.
"Our periods aren't coming...I can see myself, but I don't quite understand whether conception happened."
"Han Chen, be responsible..." and all that.
But Han Chen knew the truth. Without even looking, "You aren't."
"Explain." They demanded. He looked at them confused and replied:
"Well, feel yourself... don't you sense conscious control over yourself? I told you I gave you some upgrades. You won't need to worry about how long you can be fertile or be dragged down by monthly blood loss and iron loss, etc."
"Hey, you didn't explain this much before. This is serious - tell us in detail. And now that I think about it, the mood changes and feelings also changed, and our libido has been... quiet high these past days. Was this biological response your intent?" Hye Won gritted her teeth and said in a flushing tone.
He expected the accusation, and said in a weary tone, "Well... your ovaries now have self-renewing stem cells. Continuous supply of new egg cells throughout your lives, like how it works for males. Your reproductive hormonal cycles are compressed now - daily rhythm instead of monthly - meaning renewed libido and its detachment from biological needs. Rapid egg maturation and release and your body processes it efficiently when needed."
"You'll only shed uterine lining or menstruate when you're actively seeking conception. I rewired the, um, messed up hormonal pathways, added higher cognitive connection to your hormonal axis so you can override the reproductive readiness. Basically engineered a neurological switch in your minds - you have conscious control over your reproductive system now. You can engage or disengage these daily cycles at will, prevent bleeding when it's not needed or wanted."
A pause. Hye Won mood changed, immediately took hold of his shirts collar and pulled and asked, "You re-engineered us? Without our consent? This isn't 'evolutionary,' it's an invasion of our bodies. Who gave you the right to make these decisions for us? Do you even see us as individuals, or just biological problems to solve?"