Devouring the Heavens (ATG)

Chapter 24: Schemes and Skips

A/N: So if you guys aren't aware, Webnovel has been 'shadowbanning' comments recently. This means that any comment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.

Well, Enjoy the chapter...

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Now back in his temporary room, Shane formed a wind barrier around the door and window, before letting out a breath of relief. Although he heavily stacked it in his favour, that conversation could have gone in any number of different directions. Thankfully, the best outcome was the one that occurred.

Finally allowing the happiness at the day's events to catch up with himself, Shane's body relaxed and he jumped back onto his bed with a silly grin adorning his face. 'Aaaaah, that's so much better! Goddess damn it! this world is way too serious!'

He licked his lips thinking of Qingyue. 'Although, gaining the body and heart of a jade beauty is a good payoff for all the "hardships" I had to endure today...' "En, I deserve it!"

After once again confirming how shameless he was, Shane decided to deal with the system notification and the two things he received from his intimate session with Qingyue.

"System, open the notification."

[System: Companions Tab Unlocked]

[Companions List:]

- Companions will gain greater benefits from bestowal and are able to engage in energy transfer with the host during intimate moments. -

{Xia Qingyue: True Love}

Shane sneered. "So it's basically Dual Cultivation! No need to act mysterious No! No no no, wait a minute... I did it with Dusty too" He wondered if that meant that Dusty would one day turn into a sexy snake girl and for just a second, he really hoped it was true. 'I'm such a degenerate.'

Even without the sex earlier, the Energy Transfer was really ...sexual. What if it felt the same for Dusty as it did for him and Qingyue? The thought was fleeting but the damage was done. Shane dropped to his knees, eyes hollow and a look of utter devastation present on his face. 'This can't be true! She's my little baby for God's sake!'

Dusty, who felt his despair through the bond, rushed into the room and coiled round his arm, licking his face and making everything worse. "Oh my poor baby girl! What have I done?" He wailed. She just chirped and nudged her head towards the floating blue window.

Reading the description once again and conveniently disregarding the part that said 'intimate moments', the light returned to Shane's eyes and he stood up. "You're right girl! If the system says it's called Energy Transfer then Energy Transfer it is! Ahahahaha." A burst of awkward and unconvincing laughter resounded throughout the room.

After that harrowing battle against his own self loathing was over, he quickly confirmed that only good things had come with the companions tab. Being ever so slightly relieved that there wasn't an affection meter, Shane closed his eyes, held his palm out and 'looked' inwards.

After concentrating for a couple of minutes, something clicked. The surrounding temperature suddenly dropped by a few degrees and a chilly blue lotus made from the purest ice began to rapidly form in the air above his hand. Opening his eyes, Shane raised a finger to poke at the lotus in front of him, sending it spinning through the air.

With a bit of effort, more and more ice lotuses bloomed in the air and started to revolve around him. "The arts themselves may be trash, but they are indeed beautiful" Shane would never experience the drawback of using these arts himself but it still annoyed him that his Qingyue was given a self harming technique to practise with.

Of course, when the arts were passed to him they were automatically snapped up by his ability like a delicious little morsel

Due to this, Shane could somehow instinctively feel that he would be able to perform any of the stages of the Frozen Cloud Arts within a short time, he only needed to concentrate. He was however, much more interested in the ability to manipulate Water and Ice Energy that these arts brought him.

Now that the art had been refined within his body, he could easily see all of the flaws held within it. The biggest being the fact that the art itself was a bootleg, followed by the ice buildup in closed entrances and subsequently the decline in the practitioners lifespan.

Shane believed that given enough time and some more cultivation arts to absorb, he could edit the Frozen Cloud Arts to make them better than before and without any of the side effects. He couldn't do it yet, as he was missing some understanding of cultivation arts and profound entrances in general but it was only a matter of time.

As for collecting a variety of different profound arts and techniques, well he had a plan for that too...

Shane could even vaguely feel that he would be able to form a frozen cloud domain for an extremely short amount of time if he pushed himself to the limit and exhausted his energy. Although, that was mostly due to the other big change that had happened to his body.

He had now inherited a 'small world' from Qingyue's Nine Profound Exquisite Body and just like his veins, it was constantly producing profound energy. Not only would it aid him in cultivation, It also would enable him to comprehend and use techniques above his realm.

He would also be able to explode out with a greater power than his cultivation realm would suggest. For Shane who could already punch above his realm, this was a massive gain and his mind couldn't help think back to the source...

'Holy Shit! Qingyue really is a monster. She is literally THE most broken ass character in ATG!' Not only did his little waifu have this extremely cheat-like physique that allowed her to fight above her realm, but she also had the Heart that let her advance forward like a bullet train and learn anything.

"She's my Waifu too! Hahahaha." How could he not be happy and proud, he would never need to leave her behind! If anything, she would surpass him if he became lazy. Although he could always hug her leg on the way up if that happened.

Coming out of his thoughts and delusions Shane used his intent to probe the Profound energy that the 'small world' was emitting and felt a little disappointed. "Eh? That's it" Unfortunately, the speed in which it was able to passively improve his cultivation, was very slow.

Every time Shane's cultivation advanced, he needed a massive amount of energy to fill his veins before he could reach the next realm. This meant that the excess energy produced by the 'small world' was only equivalent to a tiny stream trying to fill an Ocean.

'Maaa I guess it means I'm always cultivating... but it doesn't really do very much.' Shane frowned for a moment thinking this, but then just shrugged and got over it. it wasn't as if he sat around and cultivated for years at a time like those old fools anyway now was it?

- Across the universe, millions of Ancestor level cultivators, suddenly felt the urge to spit blood -

With that out of the way, Shane decided to make a plan for the things he needed to do in the next two months before the teahouse opened.

Firstly, he would start the daily training of Xiao Che and Lingxi which wouldn't be much different from the conditioning he had been doing so far. He would also include basic fist and weapon training so that they could at least defend themselves to a satisfactory degree.

Secondly, Shane wanted to upgrade his weapon. Now that he was used to the strength of Spirit Profound, the Warhammer seemed way too light again. Not to mention that it wasn't technically of any grade and so it wasn't capable of bringing out his full might.

He had lots of old weapons from the bandits just sitting around in his storage and he had a plan for forging them together into his warhammer. What Shane really wanted to try was to use his Will along with the spirit profound core and the Purple Veined Heaven Crystals as a catalyst to create a living weapon.

He already felt as if he understood the concept and connection a little from his own experience using the Organic Constructs ability. The Warhammer was also once part of him and he theorised that he could nurture the connection again but still have it remain separate.

Shane stroked his chin in deep thought. The only thing stopping him from trying was the lack of forging knowledge, although hopefully Xiao Lie would come through on the books he requested.

Thirdly, was another hunting trip into the Scarlet Dragon Mountain Range. Shane needed battle stimulation to improve; he also needed to devour some higher level profound beasts to make sure his cultivation would reach Earth Profound in time to meet Qingyue's master. There were also the quest rewards to consider.

Hopefully this time, he would take Qingyue and the other two along with him for both company and training. Travelling together for a few days and visiting another town would be a nice break from everything after all.

Lastly, Shane wanted to collect as many different profound arts, techniques and other skills as he could during his time here. Most of these would hopefully come from trading low level 'pills' with the Xiao Clan members. He could even collect some herbs from them for 'refining' the pills.

He chuckled darkly to himself, knowing full well that those snakes would fall over themselves at the chance to get some pills. The clan leader was arrogant and hungry for power and the visit from the main Xiao Sect was only a few months away after all.

Future plans decided, Shane slipped into a meditative state and brought Qingyue into the dreamscape. He wanted to explain some things to her.

There was no reason not to tell her about his life up till now and that he came from another world. Their relationship was established and she had surely guessed half of it already, so keeping it from her any longer would break the trust they had built.

There was also the fact that within a few years, they would both surely step into the God Realm together and the concept of other worlds was an everyday thing up there.

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When Qingyue appeared next to him by the pond in the dreamscape garden, it took less than a second for her to dive onto his lap and get comfortable in his embrace. "I missed you!" She said before pushing her head into the crook of his neck and taking a few sneaky breaths in through her nose.

Shane rolled his eyes at her actions and pulled her up so that they were face to face. "It's only been a few hours."

She scrunched her face into the cutest little pout and he rolled his eyes again, this time in a much more exaggerated way. "Okay okay, do you think you can play me already? You're too green for that missy." He kissed her forehead and continued in a firm tone. "There are some things I need to tell you."

She sensed the seriousness of the topic and moved to sit next to him instead. Holding his hand and leaning her head against his shoulder.

Shane tangled their fingers together and started speaking. "Well I certainly haven't been very secretive about it and I am sure you must have guessed some of it, so i'll just go ahead and say it.

...I'm not originally from this world." Qingyue tensed up a little and her grip on his hand became tighter but she didn't interrupt him.

"Hmm so you already guessed huh? Well, I didn't want to keep it from you but my circumstances are a little unbelievable. It was much better for us to meet in person and discuss it but certain ...distractions, got in the way."

Qingyue went a little red at his words but she still managed to look rather proud of herself at the same time. The grip on his hand remained at the level of a bench vice, however. "What I can say for sure, is that it's not how you think it is. I am not from the Realm of the Gods."

Shane then went on to explain about his life on Earth, giving her the abridged version of how he lived and died over there, then met the Goddess who gave him some good things and helped him to join his soul back together.

He told her exactly what the Goddess said about his soul being split and also decided to bite the bullet before briefly explaining that he could glimpse certain future events due to his connection to Earth.

When he told her the last part, Qingyue looked at him questioningly, because she could tell he wasn't saying the whole truth.

Instead of explaining himself, Shane shook his head lightly. "Qingyue, there is a term from my old world called the butterfly effect. In this concept, it is said that it's possible to link the formation of a tornado with a minor influencing factor such as the flapping of a butterfly's wings happening several weeks earlier."

Qingyue understandably had a face of 'how can that be that possible' but didn't interrupt.

"The explanation is much longer than that but essentially what it means is that every action has its own cause and effect, and you cannot change something small without affecting the immeasurable whole." With that said, his whole demeanor became especially serious and he stared into her eyes.

"What I know about the future events, will cease to be an advantage for us if too many people are privy to the knowledge or if too much is subconsciously changed. In fact, I may have already altered the future in an irreparable way just by being here with you, now..."

For a moment, Shane went into a slight daze thinking about the possible ramifications of his recent actions, but soon he shook it off and smiled. Having Qingyue by his side was much more important than knowing every little detail about the future.

It wasn't like things that had been in the works for many years would be changed by one girl becoming happy either. Her part in any future events would just... change them slightly.

It did mean that Shane's knowledge of characters and events would become more and more blurred as the timeline progressed, but so what? it wouldn't even matter by then.

Besides, he had always intended to forge his own path.

"Some things I am clear of and some I have very limited knowledge or even just vague ideas about but I can tell you one thing"

He took a deep breath. "Your mother, she is safe and she will be so for the foreseeable future." Qingyue's nails dug into the back of his hand and she went to speak but Shane stopped her with a finger to her lips.

"What I know about her is spotty at best but it would do you no good to know anymore right now. Just trust me and trust your ability. When I say I would never hurt you and only want you to be happy you know it's the truth."

Qingyue's eyes widened for a second before she visibly relaxed and they started to water a little bit. She swung round onto his lap and snuggled back into his neck for a few minutes to calm herself down before pulling back and kissing him softly on the lips.

"So let me get this straight, you came from another world all the way here to the Profound Sky Continent. Then you came all the way to Floating Cloud just to meet me oh and you are also a cultivation cheat!." She said the last bit with a small smirk.

"Ahahahaha!" Shane laughed out loud for a while before he wiped an imaginary tear from his eye and said. "That was a good one! No my dear Qingyue, you are the cultivation cheat!" This time they both laughed

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The next two weeks passed by without incident. The morning training of Xiao Che and Lingxi was progressing very positively. Xiao Che was 'surprisingly' catching up to Lingxi's cultivation realm and had reached the [6th of Elementary Profound].

Of course, this was due to Shane making his training much harder than Lingxi's. She would always be ready with a wet towel for him at the end and would use the excuse of him being exhausted so that she could wipe him down.

Shane was sure she had caught onto his plan after the first few days and it made him happy that she was so smart. He would also give her a sneaky thumbs up from time to time whenever she became more daring.

Xiao Che was also becoming more receptive to her closeness and not in a familial way. At this rate, she was going to bag him before the teahouse even opened!

Shane had now managed to pot all of the Profound Tobacco plants, juveniles included, and was ready to start harvesting them. As soon as he found some time to hunt a bunch of Elementary Profound beasts, he could replenish their leaves and also evolve more beta and gamma strains.

One day, Shane came back from training the brats to find a moderately sized and very deep pool in the corner of the courtyard. Xiao Lie had presumably hired some people to build it for Dusty after he told them how much she liked the one at the Xia Manor.

Shane was very thankful but to his frustration, the old man just smiled, acted surprised, and pretended he hadn't done anything.

Xiao Lie had also come through once again during this period, and managed to procure copies of all manner of books for Shane. The books even included a small amount of basic profound arts and techniques. The majority of the books however, were about battle tactics, sword play, crafting, and forging.

Shane greedily absorbed all of the knowledge into his Mental Palace and in his free time, he would pour over the different forging techniques and refine them together into a better one.

Unfortunately, there were no books around on formation runes or letters. He knew it would be hard to find one, especially out here in the sticks, but he thought that it would be easier to find a book on the symbols than it would be to find an actual active formation in Floating Cloud.

During these two weeks, Shane had only been able to meet with Qingyue once. He went over to Xia manor to inform her father about the marriage and they spent the afternoon cuddling together and drinking tea under the old Chinese Willow...

They did meet in the dreamscape a few times, but he mostly spent that time explaining to her about his understanding of science and the table of elements. This Included his knowledge of the chemical interactions occurring during the formation of Ice.

Qingyue however, was not content with this arrangement at all and, currently she was on her way over to stay with him for a few weeks.

Shane had no idea how she managed to convince her father to agree considering she couldn't lie to save her life. She had probably used the excuse of joining in the training and also fully intended to do that.

She was also bringing some more books on forging that Shane had requested from her father and hopefully he would be able to reforge his weapon in the near future.

Considering the young miss of the Xia clan was pretty high profile around these parts and not to mention technically engaged, they needed an excuse to give to the Xiao Clan.

Thus the official explanation was that she would stay a while and learn some basic medical knowledge and combat pointers from Shane.

Qingyue's status as a Disciple of Frozen Cloud needed to remain a secret, and to the outside, it looked as if she had no teacher. Thinking that far, it didn't seem strange for her to wish to learn from a young and talented Cultivator at the Spirit Profound Realm.

There was also the fact that her Cultivation was shown as the peak of Elementary Profound Realm to the outside world

'I feel like I am missing something important here' *Gasp* Shane took a sharp breath inwards and his eyes shone with excitement.

"The Pearl of Frozen Deception! How could I forget?" He wondered aloud, The Pearl of Frozen Deception could hide the cultivation of the wearer and display it however they wished, as long as it was lower than their actual cultivation. That wasn't all, it was effective on and against cultivators up to the level of Throne!

That little pearl could be Shane's ticket to learning at least a few formation letters!

Now, he was even more enthusiastic about his waifu visiting him and it even seemed to lessen the annoyance at what he needed to do before she arrived...

To allow the Big Miss of the Xia clan to come and stay with him, there were obviously many hoops that needed jumping through. Shane would be too lazy to do this normally but the lady had insisted and he obviously stood to benefit from his 'enthusiastic' future wife coming to live with him.

So, naturally he cooperated, even if the matters that followed were slightly ...irritating.

To follow procedure, Qingyue's father had to put a formal request forward to Shane through the Xiao Clan to request for her training under him. There were also things that needed to be under consideration such as her bodyguards and servants during her stay at the Xiao Clan.

Shane refused to allow bodyguards or Xiao Clan disciples anywhere near his courtyard for obvious reasons. How would he act a lovey dovey and take small advantages of his wife if he were being watched all day long? That and the valuable tobacco plants yeah.

Qingyue also adamantly refused and stated that she would bring her own maid Dongling with her. When the disciplinary elder tried to insist, Shane pointed out that if there were to be anyone able to harm him, then the guards wouldn't be any use at all.

He then innocently smiled at the man and said. "Unless Elder Xiao will personally stand guard here during Miss Xia's stay? I would feel very relieved if that were the case." Needless to say, the man left with a red face and no longer insisted.

With the agreement of the Xiao Clan, Shane himself had to agree with Xia Hongyi's terms and the symbolic payment of some 'rare' herbs. Those herbs were already given to Hongyi during Shane's last visit to Xia Manor.

By now, most of Floating Cloud knew of his backstory as the apprentice of a Medical Saint, naturally that meant that the Xiao Clan Elders and leader were aware as well.

Between Shane's own high Cultivation, Xiao Che's healed veins, his and Lingxi's explosive increase in cultivation and now the Xia Clan's young miss becoming a student, the Clan leader had become increasingly interested in his abilities.

As a free resident within their clan, Shane had to at least act as if he respected them, and that was the reason why he was now being escorted into a meeting hall by a servant to meet with the Clan Leader, Xiao Yunhai...

As they entered the doors of a spacious room filled with the scents of incense and fragrant tea, Shane saw a middle-aged man seated at a table glancing at some documents. He looked a little like a cliche villain with an angular face, hooked nose, thin line moustache, fake smile and small dishonest eyes.

After spending many years as the overlord of this small forgotten corner of Blue Wind, arrogance and pride were also deeply ingrained into his very being.

"Clan Leader, I have brought Master Long." The servant bowed 90 degrees and spoke.

Xiao Yunhai glanced at the servant and his eyes flashed with clear disdain. However, that was replaced by a fawning and 'happy' smile, the moment his eyes spotted Shane's presence and he stood up. "You may leave... Little Long, it's wonderful to finally meet you! Come come come, please take a seat!"

Shane smiled and did his best to look a little shy while internally he was laughing. 'Let the games begin.'

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A/N: So... The results of yesterday's Poll are for lack of better words, stupidly confusing. On the app version, I am getting a completely different set of numbers and notifications compared to the browser version. If that wasn't strange enough, a friend of mine is getting yet another set of notifications on his Android.

Confusing Screen Shots here.----->

Anyways, I will leave two comments in the comment section, one for shorter, and more frequent chapters and one for Longer, less frequent chapters. Please like whichever one you want to vote for.

The one with the most likes will become the standard formatting from now on

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